Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Solo: A Star Wars Story is the second release in the spin-off series of films that, thus far, seeks to tell a few tales of the past in regards to some of the main characters and situations we find in the main Star Wars story arcs, branching off from the Original Trilogy. Obviously, from its title, this one will revolve around one of the more beloved of characters in the Star Wars universe, the ever cocky Han Solo (Ehrenreich, Rules Don’t Apply), and how he came to prominence as one of the galaxy’s most rascally of intergalactic smugglers.
The action starts off on Solo’s home planet of Corellia, known as one of the poorest and most oppressive slave worlds in the Empire’s dominion, essentially a third-world country whose only commerce is crime and ship-building. Solo has big dreams of being a pilot of his own ship in the deepest of space, hopefully doing so with his girlfriend and partner in crime, Qi’ra (Clarke, Me Before You), to co-pilot. Unfortunately, the two become separated while embarking on their plans to escape, as Han ends up joining as a soldier for the Empire on the hopes that they will allow him to become a pilot.
Things go sour years afterward, but in the kerfuffle, Solo finds himself allying with other thieves in the ranks, including Beckett (Harrelson, Three Billboards), the leader of a professional smuggling team, and Han’s new Wookie friend, Chewbacca (Suotamo, The Last Jedi). The new group is out to obtain a sizable amount of coaxium, an insanely valuable and volatile substance that, when refined, is perhaps the greatest sources of fuel in the galaxy. The trouble is, any known place with enough coaxium to steal resides in a place that is either highly guarded, or highly deadly. If they fail, they’ll live lives as fugitives from the clutches of Crimson Dawn, a ruthless crime syndicate represented by high-ranking criminal Dryden Vos (Bettany, Avengers: Infinity War), who is cohabitating with Solo’s former flame, Qi’ra.
Some of the things we know about Han Solo are explained in this adventure, from his friendship with Chewbacca, his frenemy status with Lando Calrissian (Glover, Spider-Man: Homecoming), his induction into space flight and smuggling, his obtaining of his familiar blast pistol, ownership of the Millennium Falcon, how he came into the possession of the Falcon’s gold dice, and the means by which he achieved untold speeds in the infamous Kessel Run. There’s even another situation in which Han Solo has to choose whether to shoot first. We even get an explanation for some things we didn’t even expect one from, such as how Han got his last name, and, perhaps most absurdly, why the Millennium Falcon has the notch in its nose. Not in this film, but left open for a potential follow-up, is Han’s initial dealings with Jabba the Hutt, the beginnings of which are alluded to but not explores, despite a rather lengthy two-hour-and-fifteen-minute run time.
Solo is directed by Ron Howard (Inferno, In the Heart of the Sea), who took over the project in the middle of production when those overseeing the project for Disney were disenchanted with the much zanier and less reverent direction taken by the original directors, the farcical comedy maestros Phil Lord and Chris Miller, dubbed by some of the cast and crew as “Space Ventura”. Howard is working from a script from the father and son team of Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan, the former of whom is held in high regard within the franchise for working on the scripts for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and, most recently, The Force Awakens.
The emphasis from Howard appears to be on big action set pieces to propel most of the story, as Solo rarely stop to have prolonged conversations before we’re whisked to another locale that requires either an explosive escape or an elaborate break-in. The special effects work is top notch for the production, with plenty of eye candy employed for those who enjoy that sort of thing primarily in their space adventures. The wholly CG characters are minimal this time out as compared to other recent Star Wars films, relegated primarily to a Jon Favreau-voiced Rio Durant, a four-armed creature who isn’t in the film a great deal comparatively.
The positives: Alden Ehrenreich is a completely acceptable young Han Solo, avoiding merely doing an impression, while still exhibiting plenty of the requisite comical charm and rascally guile befitting of the character, even if he lacks some of Harrison Ford’s indelible presence in the role toward the beginning of his career. Donald Glover is a truly spot-on casting to portray a young Lando Calrissian, exhibiting all of the cool, charisma and handsomeness required of the character, but also giving him surprising depth during a couple of key scenes. There’s also a real scene-stealer droid in the form of L3-37, given a female voice and ‘equal rights for droids’ persona by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Goodbye Christopher Robin), who serves as Lando’s snarky partner in more than just flying the Falcon. The Western iconography, employed in the train robbery and the shootouts, offers a nice touch that hearkens back to the original series’ origins in Westerns and samurai flicks.
The downside: the film is a bit of a slow burner, despite some prolonged early action sequences. Paul Bettany’s Dryden Vos doesn’t make for a particularly interesting foe, but this film is more about introducing the good guys we came to know and love in their later years. The cinematography from Bradford Young (Arrival) is also shot in a darker fashion than we’re accustomed to seeing in a Star Wars movie, which takes some getting used to, though it does have its more vibrant moments that pop up when necessary. John Powell’s (Ferdinand) score is fine, but doesn’t really make an emotional impact until elements of John Williams score kicks into the mix. The film at times also feels like a checklist of iconic items to which we already ascribe to the titular character, who accumulates all of these things in one rather small portion of his overall existence. Meanwhile, those things that are new to the Solo story seem too significant to lie completely absent of their existence during the four films in which we’ve already witnessed the character.
Solo shares a trait with that prior Star Wars Story, Rogue One, in that it breaks out of its inherent staleness and lack of risks through a rousing final half that delivers the goods you’d been hoping for all along. If pacing, tempo, intrigue, and plot developments that delight during the final few settings could have been there from the outset, we’d be talking about a delightful surprise for Solo to recommend for all viewers, rather than one that is merely adequately entertaining for established fans. The odds of rekindling the old magic at this point seem futile, especially as Disney seems to play everything so safe, but, as Han Solo once said, “Never tell me the odds.” Or, at this point for the Star Wars movies, the appropriate Han Solo quote is, “I expect to be well paid. I’m in it for the money.”
Qwipster’s rating: B+
MPAA Rated: PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence
Running Time: 135 min.
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Emelia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover, Joonas Suotamo, Paul Bettany, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jon Favreau (voice), Linda Hunt (voice), Erin Kellyman
Small role: Warwick Davis, Clint Howard, Anthony Daniels, Ray Park
Director: Ron Howard
Screenplay: Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan