“It’s Risky, But It’s Worth A Try”

In that galaxy far, far away…

Apparently Solo: A Star Wars Story is a major flop for Disney.  From what I’ve read, the film needs to make around $500 million just to break even and as of this writing, it’s crawling just beyond $350 million and things aren’t looking too good for the film.

The thing that drives me crazy about all of this is why is the film doing so bad?  Is it Star Wars fanboys still upset with The Last Jedi that are refusing to see the film?  Has burnout finally begun on the franchise?  Have reviews been too negative?  I’m not sure, but I do know that anyone who isn’t seeing this film, no matter their reason, is missing out on a fun adventure.  My spoiler-free review of the flick is below.

Alden Ehrenreich steps into the massive shoes of Harrison Ford as he portrays Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story.  Joonas Suotamo steps into the physically larger and almost as massive shoes (at least in the Star Wars galaxy) of Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca, Han’s beloved sidekick.  Although to be fair, Suotamo has portrayed Chewie in The Last Jedi and all of the more active parts of The Force Awakens, so he’s a little more comfortable in his role.

The film follows Han from his youth as an orphan where he and his first love, Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke), are working for a crime boss named Lady Proxima (voiced by the amazing Linda Hunt) on Corellia to his unhappy time with the Empire as an ousted pilot sent to the mud planet of Mimban where he meets Tobias Beckett and his gang of thieves.  Han also meets and befriends Chewbacca on Mimban, but I’ll let you find out just how they meet by watching the film yourself.

Han joins up with Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and his team that consists of Beckett’s wife, Val (Thandie Newton) and Rio Durant (voiced by Jon Favreau).  His plan is to use his cut from their upcoming job to buy a ship so that he can return to Corellia and free Qi’ra from Lady Proxima.  As is always the case for Han, the deal goes south and the crew finds themselves at the mercy of one of the cruelest crime bosses in the galaxy, Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany).

After a lot of convincing, Vos agrees to allow Beckett and Han one more chance to recover their losses.  His only request is that his most trusted lieutenant, who happens to be Qi’ra, tags along to ensure the success of the mission.  In need of a ship, Qi’ra suggests visiting a smuggler who happens to have the fastest ship in the galaxy.  That smuggler, of course, is Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover).  His ship happens to be the Millennium Falcon.  We also get to meet L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Lando’s co-pilot and trusted friend.

As the story moves along and Han and his fellow criminals attempt to pull off one last job, we get to see many of the things that Han talked about in the original trilogy come to fruition.  We see the legendary Kessel Run. We see how relationships are built between certain characters and learn how Han establishes that a having good blaster and shooting first are two of the most important lessons to learn in the galaxy.  There are also a couple of surprises in the film including a huge cameo near the end.

Solo isn’t a perfect film.  Then again, none of the Star Wars films are perfect (not even The Empire Strikes Back, but it’s pretty close).  I’ve read other reviews of the film that stated that it played it safe as far as the story goes.  I’ve also seen where some critics claim that the film adds nothing new to the Star Wars franchise.  In all honesty, I agree with both of these assertions.  Despite this, it’s still fun to see a lot of Han’s background unfold on the screen.

One thing that the film definitely does is re-inject some humor into the franchise.  Star Wars had quite a few lighthearted moments in the original trilogy, many of which were provided by Han and Chewie.  Beginning with the prequels, Star Wars seemed to be taking a heavier and gloomier tone.  The Force Awakens brought back a little of this humor, but the films that followed, Rogue One and The Last Jedi, turned back to the dark side of the franchise.

Solo was FUN.  I found myself smiling throughout much of the film and laughing out loud at quite a few moments.  It’s a really cool adventure and I’m glad to see that the franchise might be lightening up a little bit.

The film also features some great chase and battle sequences and a pulse-pounding train robbery (okay, it’s probably technically called a space train) that reminded me of similar sequences from the original films and even in the prequels.  The fact that the effects were nearly flawless only added to the wonder as the film played out on the screen.

The film’s music was sufficient, but much like with Rogue One, I found that the music took more of a backseat to the story than it did in the original trilogy, the prequels, and even in the new trilogy.  John Powell’s music seemed to be a dialed back version of John Williams’ classic scores.  Perhaps this was intentional, but in any case I really have no complaints with the music overall.

I also have no complaints about the cast.  Ehrenreich did a great job as a young Han Solo.  Is he Harrison Ford?  Absolutely not, but that’s no reason to write him or his performance off as something terrible.  I hope to see Ehrenreich continue in the role if and when young Han is needed again.  Suotamo gives a youthful kick to Chewbacca, and he also manages to show a great deal of emotion at certain points in the film.  Harrelson is great as Beckett.  I don’t trust him at all during the film.  He really sells the shady side of his character to perfection.

There’s been a lot of talk about Donald Glover and his performance as Lando, and all of the praise is warranted.  Glover bleeds Billy Dee Williams in this film and I want to see him do more with the character.  Emilia Clark does a fine job as Qi’ra, but I felt like the writing actually held back her performance.  Much like the scene stealing K-2SO in Rogue One, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s L3-37 steals pretty much every scene that she is in as well.  I really enjoyed her work on Flea, and was happy to see her become a part of the Star Wars franchise.  Paul Bettany is a somewhat standard villain, but he’s sufficient enough in his role.

Erin Kellyman appears as Enfys Nest, a new character that leads a group of marauders known as the Cloud Riders.  While her role is brief, it’s important to the development of Han’s character, as is the brief appearance of Jon Favreaux’s Rio Durant, who gives Han a little timely wisdom during a tense moment in the film.

There was a lot of controversy surrounding the production of Solo.  Original co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were ousted from the project well into production and Ron Howard was brought in to pick up the pieces.  I believe that Howard did an excellent job with the film and would like to see him take on another Star Wars project that’s all his in the future.

Ultimately, Solo: A Star Wars Story is an imperfect romp that’s a whole lot better than it is given credit for and I highly recommend that you check it out.  There have been much worse films that have pulled in bigger audiences and for the life of me I can’t figure out why Solo is doing so poorly.  Give it a chance.  “It’s risky, but it’s worth a try.”

Thanks for reading my review.  I really do believe that people are missing out by skipping Solo.  Be on the lookout for a post about my recent trip to Austin and I’ll have a Throwback Thursday post later today (cuz it’s passed midnight).