Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) review - Movie Thoughts (Chapter 41) 🚀

Hello everyone,

Today's post ends Star Wars Week with one of the more recent additions to the feature film collection. The origin story of everyone's favourite smuggler had a lot of production issues behind the scenes, but what eventually got released was a big ball of nostalgic fun....

(**disclaimer: the following thoughts are 100% my opinion, you do not have to agree with them - film is inherently subjective and everyone's perspective is valid! Also, there are probably spoilers in the following, read at your own risk. Now onto some thoughts....**)

Source: IMDB

Nobody thought they really needed a Han Solo origin story, and the overall feeling of Solo doesn’t necessarily change that assessment. A solidly likeable and visually lively offering directed by the experienced hands of Ron Howard, it brought the fun and the funny that defined the loveable smuggler in the franchise. Within a galaxy obsessed with coaxium or rare hyperfuel, street rat dreamer Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) becomes involved in the criminal underworld and a large-scale heist that inevitably leads him to meet characters that affect his life in different ways. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller retained executive producer credit after famously walking away from the director’s chair due to ‘creative differences’, the rocky production issues that plagued this film didn’t do much to prevent the mediocrity of the final product. By the book mythology that was funny and dripping with all the expected flashes of nostalgia, there isn’t much substance in Solo apart from some jokes and cool visuals.

Parts of the plot seemed intriguing. The gang war trickery that drove much of the conflict was curious and an under-explored aspect of Star Wars mythology. Ruthless syndicate gang Crimson Dawn were an ominous presence overhead whilst also being positioned as a rather obvious breadcrumb for a future spin-off should Disney want to go there. The mysterious leader of rival gang Enfys Nest was initially a villain chasing Solo and a crew on a job, but was craftily morphed into the leader of a group of native peoples victimized by Crimson Dawn and their Empire-backed resources. Wafting the complexities of a war within the war was an interesting idea in the back half of the plot that wasn’t really given enough time to properly grow and affirm a deeper meaning. But the heart of the plot relied on how much audiences bought into the development of the first love, childhood sweethearts relationship between Han and Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke).  They were thick as thieves before being jarringly pulled apart as they are escaping their impoverished homeworld Corellia in an oddly paced early sequence. Their reunion saw Qi’ra as a sophisticated and mysterious powerful syndicate aficionado whilst Han was still chasing their dream of saving up to run away together. The push and pull of their relationship had all the hallmarks of growing up and growing apart, but Qi’ra’s presence and arc particularly towards the end was the most compelling thing within the barrage of information audiences are presented.

That’s a valid conclusion to make because the majority of emotional pay-off embedded in the film was its overwhelmingly obvious nostalgia factor. There’s not much of an attempt to stray Solo’s characterisation from the smuggler with a good heart everyone knows and understands from Harrison Ford’s iconic original/sequel trilogy performances. Whilst that does call into the question the necessity of an origin story film if nothing new is presented about the titular character, there was plenty of room for nostalgic call-backs to familiar territory. Loveable Wookie Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) was shown playing Dejarik in the Millennium Falcon, they fly around in the Falcon with toothy grins having a whale of a time, and a hilariously iconic throwaway comment from Captain Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) about “mining colonies are the worst”. All the self-referential moments were fun to watch but were ultimately too much of a focus over a more complex or strikingly unique plot.

Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan’s patchy screenplay felt very loose. It was a very wordy film for Star Wars, with lots of dialogue and conversations that served to mechanically move the story along amongst a bunch of genuinely funny quips and banter. It lent itself more to a fun bonus feature instead of an actually important piece of the Star Wars puzzle or essential viewing because audiences don’t really learn anything new of value. Everything feels familiar and light; odd given it was knee deep in the world of under the table jobs and gangland crime where there are new ways to die around every turn.  What was most disappointing about the screenplay and plot in tandem was the underwhelming hype up of all the monumental origin moments explicitly mentioned in the Skywalker Saga. How did Han get the marker of Solo? Some Empire no-name gave it to him when he signed up to join the Empire Army; aka disappointingly non-eventful. The introduction of the Millennium Falcon? Lacking energy or any sort of cool camera angle despite a fun music motif. How did Chewie and Han meet? Chewie was ‘the Beast’ and a prisoner of the Imperial Army, and they escaped together thus becoming best friends forever. How did Han receive his famous blaster? It’s not really special or even interesting, it was just a random gun that bandit Captain Beckett (Woody Harrelson) had lying around. Do you want to see how Han did the iconic Kessel run? Lots of ducking and weaving, and there’s a terrifying kraken octopus they’re also running away from to heighten the stakes and give audiences something else to look at while the Falcon is zipping around onscreen. How does Han have the Falcon before A New Hope? He won it off Calrissian in a spicy card game. The film hit those beats uneventfully and lacked the necessary substance to make these iconic moments somewhat meaningful.

A great ensemble cast did a great job with what they were given alongside fantastic visual spectacle and a light-hearted tone that did offer some laughs. Howard salvaged a respectable offering whose charms relied too much on Han’s origins from the Skywalker Saga, but not much more beyond that.

7.5/10, 3 STARS

Thanks for reading,

Love and never tell me the odds, Emily 🚀