Solo: A Star Wars Story

Alright, I’ll admit it, we didn’t need this movie, but I’m sure glad it came out anyway.

Taking place years before the events of the original trilogy, Solo: A Star Wars Story, follows, you guessed it, a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) as he begins his journey towards becoming the scruffy-looking Nerf herder we all know and love. After being forced to take up arms in the Empire’s crusade across the galaxy, Han meets up with the one and only Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), the sly and conniving Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), fellow thief and scoundrel Beckett (Woody Harrelson), and childhood friend turned bad guy accomplice Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke), and embarks on a mission to help a shady organization known as Crimson Dawn obtain a very rare, very valuable and very volatile substance known as coaxium. What follows is the beginnings of relationships and conflicts that plague and/or assist Han in the years to come, while giving the character a decent jumping off point for newcomers to the franchise.

Like I mentioned above, there’s no clear reason as to why this film needed to be made in the first place. Granted, Han Solo is one of the most celebrated and recognizable faces in all of Star Wars lore, but just because he’s one of the greatest characters ever produced by the franchise, doesn’t mean a Harrison Ford-less prequel had to get the greenlight to begin with. Fortunately, while the story itself, character work and competence of the script may be lacking, Solo is able to hurdle over a lot of its flaws to give fans a fun, entertaining romp through a world unlike any other.

Much like fellow “A Star Wars Story” spinoff, Rogue One, Solo is at its best when exploring previously uncharted corners of the Star Wars universe in ways we haven’t seen before. The practical effects stand tall and are a pleasant surprise given how many films rely on CGI nowadays, and the fun, breezy feel of the film works wonders when you don’t think about it too much. And while Rogue One is a much better put together movie in structure, scripting, character work and the like, I found myself enjoying Solo slightly more when it came to the action, entertainment value, and overall feel of the film. Don’t get me wrong, Rouge One is definitely the better movie, but there’s something about seeing these characters back onscreen played by actors that don’t ruin the original takes while simultaneously giving audiences something new to chew on with portrayals that are undoubtedly theirs, that gets me the most. Han seems like a much more wide-eyed, mischievous character rather than the withheld, only out for himself scoundrel he eventually morphs into, and Lando…well let’s just say if you close your eyes you can literally hear Billy Dee Williams in Glover’s spot on portrayal.

But unfortunately, with the script as it is, the characters and actors can’t flex their new roles in any other way than on a surface level, and since most of the story acts as if we’re being taken on a greatest hits road trip with Han and his co-stars as we hit every note on the way from why he calls Chewbacca “Chewie” to why the Millennium Falcon looks like scrap later on in the series, there’s not much else to get wrapped up in. At the end of the day, this isn’t the movie that was going to dissect who or why Han is who he is, it was simply made to give us a glimpse into his past shenanigans, set up a few key ideas along the way and then (hopefully) use a sequel to give the character a more in depth look, which, if the amount of money this film has made thus far is to be taken the wrong way, most likely won’t be the case anytime soon.

As for the behind the scenes turmoil of the film itself, Ron Howard does a solid enough job taking over the reins from the original director duo, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, allowing the film to flow cohesively and competently a whole lot better than expected, just narrowly avoiding the debacle that Justice League turned into after their own director switch. But regardless of who started the original vision for the film, the script and story seem to be the aspects that feel the most shortchanged in the shuffle. I have no doubt that this is the movie that the filmmakers intended to make, I just feel like they expected it to come out the other side a bit more…polished let’s say. By no means do these hiccups make the final product bad; they just simply make Solo a solid film with a little less going for it than one would have hoped for. Throw in a great score by John Powell, casting that pays homage to the originals rather than trying to capture lighting in the bottle twice, and you have another Star Wars spin-off that just barely gives us an excuse to warrant its own existence.

While not a bad movie by any means, Solo: A Star Wars Story has enough narrative and scripting issues to make it a perfectly average film in nearly every way. The fun action beats, solid casting (for the most part), and a welcome reliance on practical effects gives the film that extra boost in entertainment value that not only helps to distract from its flaws and questionable storytelling decisions, but successfully gives us another peek into the world of Star Wars outside of the usual episodic, age old battle of Jedi vs Sith. I enjoyed this film as a Star Wars fan, but as a filmmaker, I was left wanting a bit more, and while this may not be the movie fans asked for, it’s most certainly worth a watch, especially if a galaxy far, far away is a place you still hold dear to your heart.