Solo: A Star Wars Story

Reviews from the Dark Side
Solo:  A Star Wars Story
Released 5/25/18

Well I finally got around to it.  Almost five months after its original theatrical release date, I sat down and watched Disney's second Star Wars anthology film.  There's a lot that can be said about this one.

It's the one that failed.  Financially that is.  That could be for many reasons.  Too many theories to count.  It's been argued back and forth by a very split fan base.  I won't go into those arguments because it's been done to death at this point.

Solo is the one that followed the most divisive film in Star Wars history.  Or, in recent memory for that matter.  No matter what side of the argument you land on, you can't deny The Last Jedi had a profound impact on Star Wars fandom.  For the side that was...less than enthusiastic about the TLJ, much of it stayed away from Solo in protest to Disney/Lucasfilm.  Right or wrong, I'm not going to argue that here.

So, the primary question on my mind as I was in the camp that shied away from the movie was this.  Is Solo any good?  Again, I heard several stories good, bad, and mediocre.

What I can honestly say is this story of how a young Han Solo escaped his home planet of Corellia, joined the Imperial Navy, hooked up with the criminal crew of Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), ran afoul of the Crimson Dawn Syndicate, met Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), lost/found/lost again his first love, Qi'ra (Emilia Clark), won the Millennium Falcon,  and assisted the first stages of the Rebellion is a mixed bag of entertainingly watchable and eyerolling moments.

My main issue with Solo is that some elements were overdone.  There's a fine line between too much exposition and too little.  I have no solid definition of what that means.  It's subjective.  For some movies, I want more.  Horror movies in particular have a bad habit of just letting events happen without knowing why they happened.  I need those gaps filled in.  Other films like, say, Highlander, all I needed to know was there are immortals who walk the Earth.  I didn't need to know why there were immortals because the core idea was fascinating to me.  And, this need to know varies from movie to movie for me.  It's an "I don't always know where the line is, but, I know when it's been crossed" type of deal.

 Solo crossed that line a few times for me.  The whole point of how he got the name "Solo" literally made me groan.  Did they really have to go there with that?  It wasn't fascinating or interesting.  The whole deal of how Han obtained his signature weapon was another "Oh, brother", moment.  Unless that pistol had some historical value because it was handed down by Great Granpappy Solo, who cares?  Oh, and someone please tell me when those damn metallic dice became a thing in Star Wars!

Maybe the most cringe moment for me was the big reveal of who was really leading the Crimson Dawn Syndicate.  And, it was cringe because it was presented in such a ham-fisted way.  It was a total fan service moment.  Now, don't misunderstand.  A well placed moment like that can be great a la the slow motion battle scene between Captain America and Iron Man in Civil War.  Or, Darth Vader slaughtering rebel soldiers in Rogue One (I've never cheered on a bad guy so much).  My point is those moments felt like they belonged as an enhancement to the greater narrative.  This one in Solo smacked of not really being confident in the material they put onscreen, so, "Hey guys, look what we have here.  You like him, right?"  And, to just double down on the silliness, this character summons a weapon to his hand and ignites it for no particular reason other than to remind you he is who he is.

Now, let's talk a little controversy.  This was a point of contention for many before this film was released.  Let's talk a little about Lando Calrissian's pansexuality and his relationship to the activist droid L3-37.  Yes, it is hinted that Lando might have a sexual attraction to the droid.  And yes, it's headscratchingly bad.  But, that aspect was a little overblown by the public in my opinion.  The reference is brief and it's played for laughs more than anything else.  And, somehow, the way Donald Glover plays the role, it kind of fits in a goofy way.  But, what I found helped me with this one is just think of how cool Billy D. Williams was in the role of Lando and you'll power right through.

Let me speak briefly on L3.  She was thankfully not long for this movie.  I'm fairly well-versed on SW, but, admittedly, I don't know everything.  Was droid activism ever established before Solo?  Honestly, many of her lines I can see were maybe being played for a few laughs as well, but, she dang sure wasn't funny.  As a matter of fact, I have to cop to pumping my fist a little when she got shot.  And, then I laughed uncontrollably as Lando almost had a breakdown over her moving on to that great droid factory in the sky.  But, going back to my first main point on how this movie over explained everything, this annoying droid's processor became the Falcon's navi-computer.  I didn't think it was possible, but, they got me to hate the Millennium Falcon now.

For my last major point, I want to address the dude who played the dude (any Tropic Thunder fans?).  Alden Ehrenreich might be a fine actor.  Han Solo was not the right role for him.  Now, I know he had an extremely difficult task of following a man who made this role iconic.  And, Alden tried.  But, the roguish charm, the cocky attitude and the swagger just weren't quite right.  Alden came off as a good guy trying to be a bad boy to me.  It didn't come natural to him.  It oozed off Harrison Ford.  And the difference is noticeable.

Now, lest I be too negative, Solo has some things going in its favor.  There are several high adrenaline action scenes.  The story itself, while a little disjointed at times, is never boring.  The action flows from scene to scene competently.  The Kessel Run was very well done visually.

The strength of the film was Han's and Chewbacca's interactions with each other.  Even though I don't think Ehrenreich was right for the part, the attempted one liners and ludicrous situations these two found themselves in at least felt like the classic characters we all know and love.  Although the introduction of Chewbacca as maneater was a little bit off putting.

Here's the bottom line.  Solo is not a bad movie.  It's "Star Wars-y" enough to feel like it belongs to this franchise.  Unfortunately, you can't say that about every release that's come out of Disney.  It's a rousing adventure at times, but, there were still some odd decisions that were made.  I know it went through extensive reshoots.  Given that, if there were still areas of cringe in the finished product, I shudder to think what director Ron Howard had to try to correct.

While Solo is by no means a great movie, I genuinely feel bad for Howard, Ehrenreich, and the entire cast and crew of this film.  They all got the brunt of the backlash for The Last Jedi.  And, Solo is a better movie than that could ever hope to be.  Granted that bar is very, very low.  But, Howard and company got caught up in a mess not of their own making.  They suffered for the sins of Lucasfilm's past.  But, once again, let's not lose sight that Solo is an adequate movie at best.  It was fine for the $3 rental fee I purchased it for.  It's not an SW movie I will watch repeatedly.

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

*** stars

Ratings Legend

0*= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Worth a look.  Better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. I'm doing my happy dance!
5 *= Pure eye candy. I have seen the top of the mountain, and it is good