"Solo:
A Star Wars Story” deserves more love than it has received. By any other
standard, the film tells a fascinating story with impressive cinematography and
amazing visual effects. But the Star
Wars standard requires an important blend of innovation and nostalgia, and this
one falls short. Like many other Star
Wars fans, I am guilty of skipping this one in the theater and waiting until it
was available on Netflix. Its release
didn’t feel like an “event” and that is a direct result of Disney’s
overconfidence in how often they could get Star Wars fans out to the theater. It’s crazy that a film could bring in nearly
$400 million and be considered a box office failure but again, that is the Star
Wars standard. While the film is quite
good, it is a step below its big sister, “Rogue One,” and probably the weakest
of the franchise (excluding the Hayden Christensen trilogy). Where “Rogue
One” feels like a chapter of the trilogies, this feels like a bonus feature. It suffers from a single fundamental flaw -
Harrison Ford is the only person that can play Han Solo. There isn’t anything wrong with Alden
Ehrenreich’s acting but we will never believe that he will someday become the
Han Solo that we all know and love. Donald
Glover as Lando Calrissian is much more believable. He captures the spirit of the character in a
way that makes it easy to see a kinship with Billy Dee Williams. The story introduces some interesting new
characters that help to shape Han Solo.
Qi’ra, played by Emilia Clarke, is the standout character of the story
as she helps us to understand Han’s mistrust and cynicism toward women. She benefits from proper character development
that isn’t dependent on our knowledge from other films. I also loved Woody Harrelson as Beckett, who
helps us to understand Han’s rogue personality later in the series. Harrelson seemed too mainstream to fit into a
Star Wars film but his character’s ambiguous good guy/bad guy persona worked
perfect for his acting. I had some
issues with John Powell’s scoring of the film.
He was a little too obvious with the musical cues in the significant
moments like when Chewie sits copilot for the first time. Those of us that love
Star Wars will get those moments with a subtle musical nod of the main theme,
not a sudden fanfare. One thing that the
film really gets right is its elaboration on beloved aspects of the Star Wars
universe. We finally get the answers to
many important questions: How did Han and Chewie end up together? Where did the Millennium Falcon come from? Why is it significant that the Falcon
completed the infamous Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs (and did it
actually)? What’s the story behind Han
and Lando’s unique “frenemy” vibe? And
there’s even a reference to “Black Spire,” the upcoming story location for
Disney Parks’ Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. “Solo”
has the backstory, Star Wars Easter eggs, and Oscar-nominated Visual Effects
that we expected. It delivers on the
promise of being a “space Western” by incorporating elements like a “train”
robbery, close-up gun holster grabs in a shootout, and sweeping panoramic
shots. It introduces us to new
characters like Qi’ra and Beckett while paying homage to old friends like
Chewie and Lando. The main issue with “Solo”
is… Han Solo. By any other name, this
film would be lauded for its storytelling and visual achievements. Unfortunately, this film just couldn’t live
up to the name of Han Solo.
[Pictured: Even if Ehrenreich isn't a believable Han Solo, this is still pretty awesome]
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