Directed by Ron Howard
Written by Jonathan Kasdan & Lawrence Kasdan
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, Paul Bettany, Erin Kellyman, Jon Favreau, Linda Hunt, Clint Howard
Soundtrack: John Powell
It’s been a pretty rough ride for me as a Star Wars fan the past few years.
For sure, The Force Awakens was a near-perfect way to jump-start the franchise after the ignominy of the Prequels, but my faith in Disney to carry the torch was quickly shattered by the hot mess that was Rogue One, followed by the terribly inconsistent The Last Jedi, leaving me with little-to-no hope for the future.
Combine all of this with the very public behind-the-scenes drama for Solo, and, well, let’s just say I was not expecting much.
To my surprise though, I actually rather enjoyed this one.
It’s far from perfect, and it contains many of the same elements that bothered me about the previous two films in the franchise, but the core story and the way it’s executed is, for the most part, fun and exciting enough to overcome the inevitable embarrassing fan service that Disney feels compelled to shove in.
In fact, in a lot of ways, Solo is what Rogue One should have been (not that either one needed to be made, but you get the point).
For one thing (and not to give too much away), I love that the story is much smaller in scale compared to any previous Star Wars movie. Nobody has to blow up a giant death ball or anything like that, and they finally managed to get away from the trope of the big end battle. Sure, we’re still doing some planet-hopping, but the plot feels much more like a cohesive story than merely a series of things that happen.
Secondly, and this is especially in opposition to Rogue One, Solo has characters you actually care about. Do I necessarily buy Alden Ehrenreich as “young HAN SOLO”? Perhaps not (and don’t even get me started on that nerd who plays Lando), but, again, the script is strong enough that it almost doesn’t matter. You could strip away all the names people know and still have an enjoyable movie.
We may never know exactly what or how much he’s responsible for, but, nevertheless, kudos to Ron Howard for stepping into a bad situation and making it work, because this film could have easily been a catastrophe and the fact that it’s actually worth watching is borderline miraculous.
Of course though, he had plenty of help.
One element that helps pull the movie together (and which was a let down in Rogue One) is the score. There are some John Williams queues sprinkled in here-and-there (appropriately so), but even the original music from composer John Powell just feels like Star Wars (in a good way).
Also, and this is something I don’t always mention when it comes to blockbuster movies these days, I thought the production design and visual effects were absolutely spot on (except maybe for some wonky-looking TIE fighters, but I can forgive that). They’re often aided by some wonderful location choices, but, again, given the drama and the reshoots, I was surprised to see it all look so seamless (although the beginning of the film does have some strange lighting that I wan’t a fan of, but that’s not on them).
In the end, I suppose the most credit goes to screenwriters Johnathan and Lawrence Kasdan, and the fact that they fought for their creative vision.
I’m not going to call it a must-watch theatrical experience, but if you’ve been as frustrated as I have waiting for a Star Wars movie that doesn’t feel like a funeral dirge and actually does some different things, then Solo is definitely worth checking out.
It’s probably a bit over-long, but there were a number of nice, long stretches where I just sat back and enjoyed the film, which I haven’t been able to say of Star Wars since The Force Awakens.
Am I grading it on a bit of a curve because of what went on behind the scenes? Sure.
But what’s an extra half star among friends, eh?
Rating: ★★★½ (out of five)
P.S.
As usual, shoutout to Alamo/Mondo for the swag.
