With the releases of
Avengers: Infinity War and
Deadpool 2, the 2018 box office summer movie season has gotten off to a promising start with the first two big releases meeting expectations and exceeding them. With the release of
Solo: A Star Wars Story, a big question mark loomed over it's box office and critical prospects as the film experienced a deeply troubled production with the films original directors being fired by Disney due to creative differences and ultimately being replaced by Oscar Winning filmmaker Ron Howard, best known for his wide variety of works ranging from
Splash to Cocoon, Willow, Far And Away, Backdraft Apollo 13, Ransom, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, A Beautiful Mind, The Davinci Code, Angels And Demons, Frost And Nixon, In The Heart Of The Sea, and
Cinderella Man. With a resume like Howards, the producers of
Solo were banking on the fact that he can reshoot the film while bringing the final product up to the standard the studio was hoping for. There's no denying that the films misfortune during it's production led to the film receiving a great deal of bad publicity before it's release. While the film has received a generally positive reception, that's in some cases more favorable than the reception Rian Johnson's
The Last Jedi received 5 months prior,
Solo has suffered largely at the box office due to the polarizing reception that film unleashed with the
Star Wars fanbase becoming more divided than ever. The question that hovers over the
Star Wars franchise, is whether franchise fatigue has kicked in or whether the film suffered due to the fact that someone else is playing the part of Harrison Ford or perhaps it's just that so many people dislike the previous
Star Wars film before it. While all reasons listed above play their significant parts in the film underperforming at the box office, the actual movie itself is much better than the reputation that it's unfortunately stamped with.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is not a perfect film by any means, but Ron Howard managed to salvage it as best as he could to deliver a space adventure, that's pure fun and thrills while not going too deep into it's story. The film was made with one specific purpose which is to entertain and satisfy fans of the franchise, while doing justice to it's iconic antihero turned hero, who largely thanks to the performance of Harrison Ford, sits as being one of the greatest characters turned heroes in movie history. Recasting the part of Han Solo with a younger actor to play the role famously played by Harrison Ford previously always proved to be a dicey move, as many fans were simply not willing to accept anyone else in the part regardless of how strong of an actor they are or how uncanny the physical appearance came across. The casting of Alden Ehrenreich proved to be a controversial one among hardcore Star Wars fans, as it was reported during production that his performance was so lackluster that an acting coach was required to help him deliver his lines (Why someone didn't make the same suggestion for Hayden Christensen for the Star Wars prequels is beyond me?). Surprisingly enough, Alden turns in a reasonably satisfying performance as a younger and less confident Han, whose still learning the ways of becoming a professional smuggler while showing traits of the Han fans later come to love in the original
Star Wars trilogy. Alden doesn't come close to Harrison Ford's impeccable performance as the latter was born to play the part, but he does a good job of making the role his own while honoring the legacy of the character. The audience still cares about this character and will be happy to learn that his legacy is not tarnished nor destroyed here.
The plot for
Solo takes the universe ten years before the events of
A New Hope with a young Han Solo meeting a younger Chewbacca and Lando, and first coming across the Millenium Falcon.
Solo shows younger Han joining a gang of galactic smugglers years before he joins the rebellion. While Ron Howard and the writing team behind
Solo deserve points for trying to add more backstory to the legecy of Han Solo to show audiences where he came from and how he ended up with the rebellion, the overall story proves to be a tad dry at times and unexciting. The film is lacking in a true villain which makes
Solo's storyline seem less engaging outside of it going through the motions of feeling like a generic space adventure at times, blending
Guardians Of The Galaxy with
A New Hope. Despite the story feeling rather weak this time around, the film is elevated by the performances of the cast and the intriguing characters both new and familiar. The films key moments come when Han has his fateful meetings with Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, encountering the Millenium Falcon, and ultimately winning the Falcon from Lando in an intense card match. These moments were hinted before in the original trilogy, but seeing them on the big screen for the first time makes the experience of watching
Solo a rewarding one. For example, Hans scene where he meets Chewbacca for the first time is both clever and well-staged thanks to Howards directing as well as the performances of the two actors.
As far as acting performances go, Alden proves to be the ideal pick for Han Solo despite the fact that it's near impossible to look at that character and not picture Harrison Ford in the part. One suspects that's a big reason for the film underperforming as that would be like Hollywood remaking
Casablanca and choosing to recast Humprey Bogart's character with someone else along with Ingrid Bergmans with the irony being no one can replace nor surpass them. Ehrenreich deserves major props for stepping into such a huge role and doing his best to honor that legacy while leaving his own stamp on the character. Contrary to what the rumors said about his performance during production, Alden does a solid job despite the fact that he doesn't come close to matching Harrison Ford's charisma in playing the part. The actor who does a great job of imitating the original actor playing his character is Donald Glover in a scene stealing performance that does the utmost justice to both Lando Calrissian and Billy Dee Williams work. Glover shines through the material and steals every scene he's in while working off Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelsen and Emilia Clarke deliver strong supporting roles with Harrelsen playing the mentor type role for young Han Solo, and Emilia Clarke doing a fine job playing Han's first true love, a smuggler herself, before meeting Princess Leia.
As far as the films technical aspects go, the score by John Powell does a serviceable job of trying to bring the familiar tone of John Williams score to the new story with familiar ques settling in some of the films most thrilling moments such as the Millenium Falcon making the Kessell Run in less than 12 parsecs intercutting with music from both the Tie Fighter chase in
A New Hope as well as the Asteroid run in
The Empire Strikes Back. The films costume cesign and art-set decoration does a fine job of keeping consistency of the 70's look
A New Hope gave off with it's sets and costumes. The films cinematography on the other hand feels inconsistent and is the weakest of the camera work presented in the Disney era of
Star Wars films. Perhaps that could be attributed to the fact that the film had multiple directors juggling it and reshoots were conducted, but the end result shows the cinematography doesn't feel as impressive as other installments despite keeping the audience believing their witnessing a wild space adventure. The films visuals and sound effects once again shine with the use of actual practical effects and backgrounds being more effective and realistic than making everything CGI like the
Star Wars prequels. The technical aspects of a
Star Wars film never disappoints and
Solo: A Star Wars Story proves to be no exception.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is a light, enjoyable, and exciting space adventure, that will generally please the majority of fans willing to give it a chance. If one can look past the fact that someone else is playing a younger Han Solo other than Harrison Ford and that the movie does the best job it can at being a solid yet somewhat dry origin story of an iconic hero in film, then they'll have a reasonably good time watching it. It's not the best
Star Wars movie forsure but for those who found great disappointment in
The Last Jedi, Solo might be the medicine they need to move past the disappointment of that film while feeling good again about the Galaxy far far away.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is not a perfect film by any means as it's script lacks depth, but the characters and the performances are enough for the audience to become invested in the story while having a fun experience in the cinema for two hours.
Solo defies the odds of what
Star Wars fans initially expected it to be going in, and is deserving of being a much bigger box office hit rather than going down as the first official box office bomb in the
Star Wars franchise. One strongly suspects that the lack of Harrison Ford, the unwarranted origin story of Han Solo, and the polarizing reception to
The Last Jedi had much to play with the film failing financially, but the fans that remain open-minded will discover that the movie is actually a decent entry in the universe. As the second non episode in the series, it's a step above
Rogue One as it feels more energetic and less stiff. One of the Summers most underappreciated films.
Final Verdict: SEE IT
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