Here we are less than six months since Star Wars: The Last Jedi stormed box offices and created the largest rift in Star Wars fandom to date. And guess what? Disney has dropped on us another Star Wars film. This one, Solo: A Star Wars Story, is a film that if you look at the internet, nobody asked for it (FYI, I did about 30 years ago as a 10 year old kid but that’s neither here nor there).
If you follow film news, you know that the production of Solo has been plagued by issues. Most famously, original directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, The LEGO Movie) were fired from the production and replaced by Ron Howard. Lord and Miller had already shot a nearly complete film at the time of their firing and Howard was brought on to redo almost all of it (70% by reports). And Howard, the cast, and crew had to do it in a quick amount of time to maintain the May 25th release date. So, you wouldn’t be at fault to think that Solo could honestly be a giant mess of a film.
And guess what?
Solo is not a mess at all. It’s a purely solid production that hit all the notes I want from a Star Wars film. It is fun. It is funny. It has thrilling space flights and blaster battles that scream Star Wars to me and place me directly in that galaxy far, far away.
I left the theater with a smile on my face as big as I had after seeing The Force Awakens. Solo is kind of what I’ve always wanted from the franchise and certainly what a 10 year old me wanted 30 years ago, five years after Return of the Jedi with seemingly no hope of ever getting anything more from the series.
Solo is an origin story of sorts and that may turn off some people. But at its core, it is really a heist movie and the heists are fun and exciting. The primary characters, Han (Alden Ehrenreich), Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), Beckett (Woody Harrelson), Qi’ra (Emelia Clarke), Lando (Donald Glover), and L3-37 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) are all well cast and bring expressive personality to their characters. The group all works well together and the actors all look to be having a blast portraying their characters.
Donald Glover, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Emelia Clarke in particular are standouts. Waller-Bridge continues the tradition of the films having standout drooid characters. Her delivery as L3-37 is fantastic and she provides some fantastic laughs when on screen. Glover as Lando is nothing short of perfect. He embodies the persona of Lando so perfectly that it feels amazingly natural and I want to see so much more of him as Lando. Clarke isn’t presented with any legacy baggage but instead has to fight with the baggage of being a love interest to Han Solo. How does one compete with Princess Leia? Clarke figured it out and makes Qi’ra more than just a paramour for Han. She’s strong and independent and has a hint of a dark side that gives her a hint of mystery that plays out wonderfully in the end.
The film, by its very nature of exploring the iconic character of Han Solo, comes with a ton of baggage. The biggest of that baggage of course is that for many, including myself Harrison Ford is Han Solo. His image has burned itself in my head as the representation of the character. That is a lot of baggage for an actor to take on and I feel bad for Alden Ehrenreich because it put him in an impossible situation taking on the iconic role. Thankfully the disconnect, at least for me, only last a few scenes. By the time Han had escaped from his home planet, I was mostly on board and once he teams up with Chewbacca I was sold. Ehrenreich doesn’t make you forget Ford as Han but he makes you believe they are the same character and that is the highest praise I can give to the film, it made me believe. It took me to that galaxy far, far away and took me on a two hour adventure.
Sure, that adventure isn’t particularly risky (prequels have that problem) and maybe nothing in the film blew me away (except for Glover as Lando and the ending) but it’s Star Wars and that makes my 10 year old self happy. But more importantly, it made my 39 year old self happy as well.
About Author
