Solo: A Star Wars Story (2D)

(I’m not that sorry.)

Don’t get me wrong. Harrison Ford is awesome, and his contribution to film helped give me a happy childhood (…that, and my parents’ love.) But when it comes to Star Wars, little 1980s me always preferred Luke…and then Obi-Wan…and then Darth Vader…and then, I guess, Princess Leia. For me, Han Solo was pretty far down the line. I even liked Grand Moff Tarkin better. Just kidding, I didn’t, but Han just never did interest me all that much. (Indiana Jones, on the other hand…)

So when I started hearing things were going wrong with the production, I couldn’t muster even contrived outrage. I just didn’t care either way because I wasn’t excited for the movie even when hopes were still high. Honestly, I got much more interested in the film when Ron Howard was brought in to replace the directors because that’s not a move you make unless a) There’s a real problem and b) You’re still committed to fixing it. If you bring in a famous, seasoned (probably expensive) Oscar winning director at the eleventh hour, clearly you’re still trying to make the movie good and you believe it can be done.  (People need to stop badmouthing Kathleen Kennedy, by the way, as if she’s some naif who appeared from nowhere to ruin Star Wars.  What have you produced?  She produced my entire childhood, and if you’re my age or younger, yours too.  So shut up.)

Still, my husband and I weren’t nearly as excited for this Star Wars adventure as we’ve been for the others. Here’s the thing, though. Our kids were. As far as they were concerned, this was going to be every bit as great as Empire (only that’s not their favorite). We were going to buy our tickets ahead, and go to the special theater, and get chips and queso, and maybe buy souvenirs (!!!!).

So for all of you angry fans planning to lash out at Disney by boycotting this movie, I don’t think your plan will work. Kids (whose tastes likely don’t align perfectly with yours) still think Star Wars movies are awesome, and they’re going to continue seeing them (and likely outlive you) (and probably gain earning power as yours declines).  Maybe it’s not fair, but it’s true.

Is this the greatest Star Wars movie ever? No, of course not, and clearly it’s not intended to be. Obviously not every part of someone’s life is the most epic highlight. Think about it, would you want Solo’s early exploits to be more momentous and fulfilling than what he experiences in the original trilogy? This isn’t Solo’s greatest adventure. (We’ve already seen that.) But it’s a fun and engaging origin story that’s definitely re-watchable (which is certainly not true of every movie, even those with excellent reviews).  I am actually quite eager to re-watch it, and I don’t feel that way about most stuff I see.

The Good:
I’m not completely sure what Phil Lord and Christopher Miller did wrong. (I’ve heard the tone was off.  I’m guessing they made everything a big joke, more like Lego Star Wars than organic Star Wars). But they did a good job with the casting. I know they had a hand in that, and this film has a phenomenal cast.

Early on, I thought, “Even if the negative buzz turns out to be true, and the plot is disappointing, the charisma of these actors is enough to keep the audience engaged.”

It’s really an exceptionally charismatic cast. Admittedly, Han Solo has the least charisma of the principals, which is a little weird. But I think that awkward development (obviously caused in reality by the absence of Harrison Ford) is conveniently mitigated by the fact that here we’re dealing with a different Han Solo than we’ve ever encountered on screen before. He’s younger. He hasn’t fully come into himself. His character is still being formed. Nobody is going to be Harrison Ford but Harrison Ford. When you think about it, though, young Han Solo should not start out as fully formed as the man he eventually becomes. So fortunately, Alden Ehrenreich’s performance works.

I’m that rare Star Wars fan who approved of the casting of Ehrenreich. “Oh good,” I said. “That guy can act. I loved him in Hail, Caesar!” (He’s really great in that movie. You should watch it if you haven’t.) Before seeing the movie, I’d heard dire rumors that Ehrenreich couldn’t get Han’s voice right. But if that’s true, then he must really have pulled it together at the eleventh hour because I think he’s fantastic at mimicking Ford’s inflection and mannerisms. His facial expressions are particularly en pointe (on point?  The point is, they’re spot on.)  

Imitating another person while trying to give your own interpretation of a character must be frustrating.  Don’t be fooled by how easy Meryl Streep makes it look.   (She makes everything look easy.)  It’s like giving two performances in one. The audience looks at every other actor and wonders what their character is feeling or planning. We look at Ehrenreich and critique how well the face he’s making matches up with Harrison Ford’s expressions.

Like I said, nobody else is ever going to be Harrison Ford, but I personally think Ehrenreich acquits himself well. He brings a welcome (if surprising) innocence to Han. We get to see the character at a time before he was so adept at masking his kind-hearted core in cynicism.

Even if you don’t like Ehrenreich as Solo (which I did), you can just focus on everyone sharing the screen with him. The other characters are well drawn and skillfully played.

Thandie Newton gives a conspicuously good performance as Val. Her part is relatively small, but at several moments I noticed and admired the nuance she brings to the character. In fact, it was while watching Newton that I first thought, Wow this movie has a really strong cast.

Paul Bettany is so much more exciting in this role than he is as Vision in The Avengers. It’s probably because Dryden Vos is a pretty cool character. He’s here only to fill the role of villain for a while, so it’s not like he gets tremendous development. Still, I’d love to learn more about him. Part of his appeal is captivating character design, but Bettany’s electrifying performance gives Vos his real sizzle.

While I was watching, I kept thinking, “I like Emilia Clarke better in this than anything I’ve seen her in besides Game of Thrones.” Only while writing this review did I realize, “Wait a minute! I’ve never seen her in anything besides Game of Thrones!” (I always meant to watch Terminator Genysis, but I guess I forgot. That summer my son was born is just a blur for me.) Clarke seems perfect to play Qi’ra, a character I mistakenly assumed had to go one of two ways.

Woody Harrelson is also perfect for the role of Beckett, so perfect I was shocked to learn that other actors had auditioned.

Joonas Suotamo has transitioned seamlessly into the role of full-time Chewbacca, a character given far more to do here than in The Last Jedi (which is easy).  (I actually like The Last Jedi, more every time I watch it, in fact.  But it is weird that Chewbaca’s character arc is basically 1) Greet Luke 2) Consider becoming vegetarian 3) Finally hug Leia.)  Chewie shows that he’s an individual here, Han’s friend, not his pet.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a scene stealer as the activist droid L3-37.  She was my daughter’s favorite character.

And best of all, Donald Glover makes an amazingly charismatic Lando Calrissian. Lando is another character I have no particular investment in (though I do think it’s weird they keep denying a willing Billy Dee Williams the chance to appear in the new trilogy). Glover’s Lando, however, is a cinematic gem. He should get his own standalone anthology film. If nothing else, this Solo film should get a sequel, heavily featuring Lando. (Maybe that would be better, actually, since I’m not sure how Lando would come across if we were following him all of the time.) Han and Lando have great chemistry, and Glover actually does an even better job (than Ehrenreich) of mimicking the inflections of the older iteration of his character. Yet somehow, he still manages to make the character his own. (And I love the way he pronounces Han, despite correction. One thing I’ve never understood about the original trilogy is why actors were permitted to pronounce the names according to their whims. Why did none of the directors ever say, “Let me stop you there. Most other people are pronouncing that name this way”? Did it start with Lucas being unsure how to approach Peter Cushing and snowball from there?)

We also get fun cameo appearances by Clint Howard, Warwick Davis, and (apparently) Anthony Daniels. (I didn’t notice Daniels during the movie, but the other two are obvious.)

So Solo gives us a great cast of compelling characters. It’s also clearly designed to appeal to Star Wars fans in general, and fans of Han Solo in particular. (Now granted, if you’ve read all of the retro-labeled “legends,” you may know a more detailed, possibly different backstory for the character than the average film goer, and some of that material may clash with what’s presented in this movie. I don’t know for sure. I never started reading the novels until Disney took over, and I read then hoping for continuity and clues which I may be ultimately denied. We’ll see.)

For most people, it should be fun to see the reason Han does x, why he started saying y, where he first met z, where he picked up AA. Granted, some of these “aha” moments are a little too on-the-nose, but who cares? (It’s a little bit like the first sequence of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade stretched out into an entire movie. He’s even running around on top of a train for part of the time.)

The movie also shows that anybody can have a satisfying adventure in the Star Wars universe. A force user does not necessarily have to be involved (but it’s better when one is, though).

Best Scene:
Without question, Qi’ra’s final shared scene is the standout of Solo. That amazing exchange alone is worth the price of admission to the movie. (I think the screenplay works as presented, but if they wanted to overhaul the script, they could cut everything but that scene and build from there.)

After seeing that, I demand a sequel, or, if not a direct sequel, at least some sort of follow up. I don’t really care who the protagonist is. I want to see more of that storyline as it develops. If that doesn’t happen, I will be extremely disappointed.

Best Action Sequence:
I’m confused about this. I wasn’t as fully focused on some early scenes as I should have been because my nine-year-old just got braces, so I found myself distracted by tasks like cutting a cheese quesadilla into tiny pieces in the dark. Possibly, the early scenes of Han’s initial escape were far more riveting than they seemed to me.

If I were looking for the action sequence most likely to make a cameo in a Disney ride, I’d give it to the Kessel Run, hands down. That will make a killer sequence on Star Tours (or potentially that yet-to-be-debuted Millennium Falcon ride). In fact, I fully expect to see the Kessel Run on Star Tours. If it doesn’t show up there later this summer, I’ll be shocked.

But I don’t think that’s the best action sequence. There are a number of action set pieces in this, but sometimes the small hand-to-hand struggles are way more exciting than all of the expensive explosions.

Personally, I liked the plundering/liberation of the mine the best, but I’m not sure it’s fair to call that action sequence because it involves an awful lot of dialogue and even a little character development.

Best Scene Visually:
This movie does a great job of showing that the Star Wars universe is vast and full of enormous, frame-filling places to have adventures. When I asked, my husband called out the scene when the star destroyer appears in front of them as his favorite visually. I have to say that the train robbery sequence also shows immense depth and gives us a lot to take in. So much is going on, and it all looks really expensive. But the special effects are so good here. There’s none of that blurry, whizzy, hard to follow, vision-obscuring sort of action. We get an incredibly clear look at that train and the mountains and valley around it.

The Negatives:
The biggest problem with this movie is that the ending is ten thousand times more exciting than all that has come before. Solo leaves us hungering for more, wondering what will happen next. But when this rush of excitement wears off, we kind of start to think, Hmm. Maybe that’s where the movie should have started.

It’s too bad the movie can’t start at the beginning of its final act. I mean, it really can’t. Part of the reason that last act is so exciting is that the rest of the movie has set up the story. Another reason the ending wows us is that it contains a huge shock we never saw coming. This wouldn’t be a big surprise if it happened at the beginning. It would just be another part of the story, and it would lose some of its jaw-dropping impact.

Now we’re desperately waiting for the next part of the story. But maybe we’ll never get one. The movie ends as if teasing a Solo 2, but who knows if that will happen? (Honestly, we don’t need a Solo 2. We just need some kind of continuation of a certain plotline. I’m lukewarm on Solo, but there are some characters I’m really, really, really into. Like really. Really. I don’t care what name you slap on the movie and who the protagonist is. Just give me more of this. It could happen in a film completely unrelated (or just tangentially related) to Solo. One Star Wars character in particular seems quite promising. But, actually, I would like to see another Solo movie, maybe a Solo trilogy. We all know that the origin story is never the most exciting. The movie can’t help this, but let’s hope there’s a part two. (If Star Wars history has taught us anything, it’s that the middle film in a trilogy is always either the best, the worst, or the most divisive.)

Another really weird aspect of Solo is that Woody Harrelson’s character seems so familiar. Watching the previews, I thought, Oh yeah, of course. We all know Solo was mentored by a Woody Harrelson type played by Woody Harrelson. Why does that feel so right (so right that it’s like some embedded memory)? Part of the problem is that in Guardians of the Galaxy, Quill seems like a Solo type and Yondu seems like a Woody Harrelson type. So then when we see actual Solo and actual Harrelson in this movie, we feel like we’ve already seen this pairing before. You can’t blame Woody Harrelson for being Woody Harrelson. I mean, he’s awesome! I love him! Why would he play a different type when he’s so good at playing the type he plays in this movie? There’s just something weird and déjà vu inducing about it all. 

I also found the score kind of unremarkable (except the John Williamsy parts).

The only other bad thing I can say about Solo is that not once did I ever think, ”This is the greatest movie I’ve ever seen in my life! I’m transported in an ecstasy of bliss!” (That surprise scene near the end evoked some real feelings, but it was the only one.) That may be partially my fault, though, since next to me, my daughter was having problems like, “I taste blood in my mouth, but I can’t tell where it’s coming from,” and, “It’s too dark for me to tell if this is a banana!”

Overall:
Solo: A Star Wars Story is a good movie, entertaining enough to rise above baggage that could overwhelm any project. I’d be lying if I called it the best Star Wars film I’ve ever seen. But 1) I have never been that invested in the character of Han Solo and 2) How can you pick a “best” from a group of movies that span forty years and affect (different) audiences in powerful and unique ways?

If you like Han Solo as a character, then you should enjoy this series of adventures from his early life. But if you’re invested only in Harrison Ford’s performance, I do have to admit that Harrison Ford does not play twenty-year-old Han Solo in this film. Please try to make peace with that before you see the movie.

If you just like summer popcorn flicks that you can enjoy with your kids, this is a good one. It’s not too cerebral, but it’s also not stupid. Solo gives us lots of action, adventure, peril, creepy creatures, cool characters, exciting locales. Without being hyperbolic, I can tell you this. Solo: A Star Wars Story is much, much better than its theatrical trailers.  It’s a great excuse to eat popcorn in the dark.