*Originally written May 25th, 2018*
Going into Solo: A Star Wars Story was a weird experience. It was the first Star Wars film I'd seen from Disney that I just had no excitement for, I usually go to the midnight viewing, but I couldn't even be bothered, so I figured I'd get it out the way by going straight from work on release day. It was a weird day, I just felt nothing going into this film, but that's not entirely my fault.
The long troubled production that been long publicised, the casting of the iconic Han Solo left a lot to be desired, the trailers had done nothing for me, mostly looking like some weird expensive fan film (Even the font for the title from the trailers looked awful). The most troubling thing for me was the decision to give Ron Howard the directors chair after Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired due to creative differences. Howard is not a director I've often got on with, I enjoy a few of his films, but find his direction to be very bland and workman life. I was worried.
Much to my surprise, Solo is a complete blast. It does very little to justify its existence and brings nothing new to the franchise, but I'd only be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the hell out of it. It has problems for sure, just not ones I expected going in. All in all, it completely exceeded any exceptions I had. It probably helped I had no expectations at all, if I was expecting another incredible Star Wars film in the vein of Empire or Last Jedi, I probably would have been disappointed.
An origin story of Han Solo is probably something we didn't need, but now we've got it. We see the smuggler's early days where he slowly becomes the man we know in A New Hope. There's obviously appearances from well known characters and events mentioned in the Original Trilogy. The problem with prequels is that you know where everything is going to go, who's going to live and who's going to die by the end of it. Solo subverts expectations on this front, the story is full of surprising turns I won't spoil. Disney are clearly going to make a franchise out of young Han Solo and based on this I am completely okay with that.
Alden Ehrenreich does a fantastic job portraying a young and inexperienced Han Solo, it really helps he wasn't always just doing a Harrison Ford impression, although he does do Ford's famous point a few too many times. He brought a lot of confidence and charisma to the role, making it his own without introducing on what made us love Han Solo in the first place.
Rogue One failed to give us many memorable side characters, which I thought was going to be the case here, but thankfully, despite being Solo's film for the most part, most of the supporting cast have a part to play and time to shine. I'll get Donald Glover's Lando Calrissian, who stole the show with every scene he was in, even before the film was released, everyone seemed to universally agree that this was perfect casting and they were right, Glover nails it. Giving us a perfect Lando full of charm, sexiness that some of the funniest lines in the Star Wars series. I'd happily see a spin-off with Glover that is just two hours of him as Lando told through interpretative dance.
We also spend a lot of time with Solo and Chewbacca, learning how they meet. It's a bit clunky (As is most of the first act), but they're growing partnership is clearly the emotional core of the film and for the most part it works. Emilia Clarke is an actress who gets a lot of hate outside of Game of Thrones (Some of it warranted), but she's fine here, not amazing and not given a massive amount to do, they are clearly setting her up for more in an eventual Solo sequel thanks to the surprise appearance of a Prequel Trilogy character (Which I'm still unsure how to feel about).
Aside from Lando, the side character that leaves the biggest impression is Woody Harrelson's Beckett, a thief who ends up taking on Solo to his crew. Harrelson is always extremely watchable and it's no different here, his presence brings life to a lot of scenes and they go places with his character in the third act I did not expect. I just need to watch this again with subtitles, but a few things he said, I just couldn't make out.
First and foremost, Solo is a heist film, it's about bringing a group of characters together to perform this heist and the fabled "Kessell Run". It's a shame that it's just such a slog for the first act, getting all these characters together for the heist is more than a bit clunky and a bit of a drag, but once everyone is together, it is more than worth the wait. I should also mention we learn about the origin of Han Solo's name in the first act and it was one of most laughably bad and poorly written things I've watched in a while.
With Ron Howard directing I was afraid the action would be pedestrian and boring, but it was far from that. It was exciting and well shot, making use of its smaller stakes for more personal and interesting scenes. The train heist shown in the trailer was easily the best of what we had here, and while that a very early scene, it doesn't mean the later action wasn't great. I massively appreciated the smaller approach to the final scenes, there wasn't some giant CGI fight, it was mostly just a confrontation between people and it worked very well.
Don't be put off by Solo's troubled production. Sure, it has very little reason to exist and adds nothing new to the table, but its an extremely fun, if a little clunky and a tiny bit bloated adventure in the Star Wars universe and far better than it had any right to be. Just don't go in with massive expectations and have a good time.
8/10 Dans
Solo: A Star Wars Story is out now in cinemas in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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