While the Star Wars saga continues to propel the story in a new direction, the Star Wars universe is committed to exploring every corner of the galaxy far, far away.
Solo: A Star Wars Story, in theaters everywhere today, acts as a prequel to the original Star Wars by telling the origin story of everyone’s favorite smuggler, Han Solo. As originated by Harrison Ford in the first Star Wars, he would play Han for the rest of the series, cementing his status as one of pop culture’s most iconic characters. In Solo, Alden Ehrenreich steps up to the plate to channel the smuggler as a twenty-something-year-old street rat turned fighter pilot. While it’s not terrible, Solo is uninventive and limp, which fans may be disappointed– but not shocked– to hear.
We are immediately thrust into following the titular Han (Ehrenreich), a smuggler escaping a life of “lawlessness” along with beautiful Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke). Fed up with their dreary life on the planet Corellia, Han makes a plan to escape with Qi’ra and live out his dream as a fighter pilot. Their attempt to leave ends up in chaos, Han narrowly escapes but is forced to leave Qi’ra behind. Determined to save her from an unknowing fate, Han continues on his journey alone (or, solo), desperate to find a way to rescue her from the evil powers that be.
His quest to rescue Qi’ra is not an easy one. In fact, Han nearly gets killed multiple times (but- no spoiler here- of course, he doesn’t). He meets a cast of characters throughout his journey, including the killer wookie turned best friend, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), and fellow back-alley smugglers, Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and Val (Thandie Newton). Han becomes entangled in the duo’s latest mission, to rob a train full of coaxium fuel for the criminal organization Crimson Dawn, which will bring everyone involved a major payday. Han sees the reward money as the opportunity he needs to buy a plane to finally rescue Qi’ra and wholeheartedly agrees to join. However, things go south before the mission is completed, which forces the group to take on an even riskier job. This new job introduces Han to Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), and ultimately, the evil forces of Crimson Dawn leader, Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany).
Although for as much criticism as the film has received, there really is nothing like sitting in a theatre listening to John Williams’ Star Wars theme song in surround sound. That alone may be worth the price of admission.
While it’s a serviceable movie, there’s no denying that we’re cashing in on the currency of a character and world we already know rather than building things anew. There is only so much originality that can go into “prequel” films like this one, and unfortunately, that predictability is Solo‘s biggest downfall. While there are a few plot twists and surprises here and there, Solo as a whole comes off as flat. Action scenes aside, the story lacks the pizzazz that Star Wars fans have come to expect and deserve.
It’s only been a year since the latest Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, was released which poses the question– is the frequency which Disney is pumping out these films making them less special? That could be one reason why Solo feels unnecessary in relation to the Star Wars canon. That’s not to say that the film lacks talent, both in front of and behind the camera, including director Ron Howard (who replaced directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller after they were let go because of bumpy behind-the-scenes drama). Ultimately, Solo‘s biggest disappointment is that it is forgettable, especially among the sea of other hero movies that came out recently. Although for as much criticism as the film has received, there really is nothing like sitting in a theatre listening to John Williams’ Star Wars theme song in surround sound. That alone may be worth the price of admission.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence. 135 minutes. Now playing in theaters everywhere.
