Note: I am refusing to use the “A Star Wars Story” appendage to the title of Solo. It looks dumb and sounds dumb. Disney please stop doing this for your spin off Star Wars movies. Also some spoilers – blah blah blah
Over the weekend I ended up seeing Deadpool 2 and Solo. Deadpool 2 was amazing (the best Marvel movie so far). Solo wasn’t nearly as good but it did finally let me leave a Star Wars movie and not immediately think to myself: “What the fuck did I just see?”
I came into this movie with a fair amount of skepticism. Not necessarily on the content of the movie itself, but the entire premise for it. I’m wondering at the end of the day, is this a story that really need to be told? We’ve had 4 movies that have featured the character Han Solo pretty prominently. We know Han Solo pretty well already. He’s already a very fleshed out and complete character at this point. I feel this type of movie could have been better served with perhaps a character that hasn’t had very much time in the movie limelight, like say, Boba Fett.
You know what would be cool? A movie about one of these guys.
As for the movie itself, it marks itself as a vast improvement over the less than stellar modern Star Wars movies that have preceded it. There’s no issues with horrid pacing and non-existent character development like in Rogue One. No indications of absolutely shitty writing like in the Last Jedi. It’s just a decent, fun movie to watch that doesn’t try to drag itself out too long without any pointless diversionary scenses.
Alden Ehrenreich does a pretty good job as Han. He doesn’t really try to mimic Harrison Ford all that much, and portrays a realistic version of a younger Han. Which is great, because this was going to be one of my concerns going into the film. Donald Glover also does a good job as Lando, though he loses a point or 2 for trying to do a bit of a ham handed Billy Dee Williams impersonation in his opening scene.
The only character I have some questions about is L3-37. I’m trying to figure out whether she was meant as a “serious” character or not. There’s some talk about “Oh look a character talking about droids as slaves, how progressive of them!” But honestly the character came off as a silly social justice warrior parody to me. Especially given her ultimate fate after being fatally shot and having her brain cannibalized to integrate it into the Falcon, which I’m totally sure that she would have been okay with!
A fun element of this movie is even though I was pretty much aware of how every plot element was going to play out from start to finish, I still was given a few surprises here and there. The reveal of Maul as the leader of the Crimson Dawn stands out the most here. Qi’ra’s decision to abandon Han in favor of the Crimson Dawn was also a little surprising, as I was pretty sure they were going to find some way to kill the character off as their method of “hardening” Han for his later year. And then came the highlight of the movie, which also was a pleasant surprise: Han ultimately shooting his mentor Beckett while he was in mid sentence, in what I can only describe as an thorough rebuke of George Lucas in the Han shot first debate. The namedrops of Bossk and Aurra Sing were nice touches though I feel Bossk himself should have been worked into the movie given his long running history with Han and Chewebacca.
Mentioned but not seen. Bit of a waste.
A negative mark I would place on this movie is some odd music selection at times. During the Kessel Run scene as the Falcon is being chased by some TIE Fighters, all of sudden the TIE Fighter chase music from A New Hope just blasts into the movie out of nowhere. Compared to the rest of the score, this felt a bit out of place. Look I get the whole nostalgia thing but couldn’t another piece have fit better (the Escape from Bespin scene comes to mind)? Also, when Maul appears a medley of “Duel of the Fate” kicks in and almost ruins the whole moment. Again, hitting the nostalgia a little too thick there.
Ultimately, this movie is OK. It’s a fun time, and I certainly don’t regret spending money to go see it (but prioritize Deadpool 2 over this). It’s been a little surprising to find out about the lackluster box office performance. Thankfully, this may kill any chance for a possible sequel that the movie’s ending certainly left open. While I thought it was moderately enjoyable, I’ve had enough of Han Solo and would probably skip a sequel. Please give us the Boba Fett movie instead.
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