2018 Film Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Directed by: Ron Howard
Written by: Lawrence Kasdan, Jonathan Kasdan
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson
IMDb Link

Not that you ever needed to know, but we find out almost everything about Han, from how he got his signature blaster to how he met Chewie and Lando, to how he acquired the Millennium Falcon and even how he got the name 'Solo', and that most of this happens for him in the space of a few days. Outside of those origin moments it's a series of rushed and mostly unimaginative heists and action sequences. It's a lot of fluff and fan service masquerading as thin plot that's largely held up by the performances of its lead actors and their characterisation.

Ehrenreich is the best part of this movie. He brings all that you would expect of a Han Solo role -  he shoots fast, he talks first, and he's cocky enough to try anything once with confidence - and at the same time, he has a certain youthful idealism to his character, which gets worn down over the course of the movie by repeated betrayals and cynical attitudes. Ehrenreich carries himself with the same walk, the same tone, the same expressions, it's really uncanny. It's a very good imagining of what turned him in to the character we all know and love; as performance and as characterisation of Han, Solo is a success. There's a similar amount of success to be found in the rest of the main cast. Donald Glover is perfect as Lando, charismatic and confident almost to delusion, and Joonas Suatomo offers a significantly emotional turn as Chewbacca (seriously, of all the subplots in this movie, his was the most engaging and it only took up a few minutes of screen time). Clarke and Harrelson as newcomers Qi'ra and Beckett both offer solid performances in roles necessary to Solo's development. Qi'ra is a once lost love turned crime lord's lieutenant, and Clarke plays her effectively serious without being too dour; she's conflicted, and shows a nice contrast in the moments she spends alone with Han. Beckett is moralistically grey and poisonously cynical, the type of person you could see Han becoming, and Harrelson gives him the image of a wounded soul. Neither of them have very much to do outside of how their characters relate to Han, but both of them play well with what they're given.

The plot in the film doesn't fair as well. When it slows everything down to just let characters have their moments, the film works just fine; the charisma of the actors is enough to carry those scenes regardless of what's actually happening in the story, and the dialogue is appropriately cheesy enough to make it feel, for lack of a better word, 'Star Wars'-y. However, when everything needs to actually move we're left wanting. The movie just jumps through a bunch of loosely connected heist scenes that have a lot of action without any real energy or emotion; it's not poorly made, it just doesn't pack much of a punch, with the obvious factor of certain characters being unable to die leaves a lot of the scenes not emotionally engaging either. It's not as if the movie doesn't try, but it essentially trades its inability to have real stakes with most of its principle cast for chances at easy fan service, of which there is a lot. Everything from prop explanation to unnecessary background information to neat Easter Eggs that refer to the other movies and series to cameos (including one that would have made a younger me jump with glee), the film is filled to the brim with veils of Star Wars lip service in an attempt to make up for its natural loss of tension. Because of this, I don't feel a lot of incentive to actually see any of it just because it's Solo and Star Wars; I'm glad I saw it because Ehrenreich's performance and Chewbacca's subplot were worth the price of the ticket, but it's otherwise mild swashbuckling fun.

The Short Version: The good performances and characterisation of its lead hold up a flimsy plot and mostly uninspired action. The fan service can be taken or left. Solo is good, sometimes very good with its characters, but otherwise fine and ultimately forgettable.

Rating: 6.5/10

Published May 25th, 2018