So, naturally, a Han Solo solo movie...only three movies after the movie in which he was killed off.
Way to go, morons!
I don't mean to be overly hard on this movie, after all, Han is one of only two of the original trilogy's trio that a solo film could be made for (the other being Leia), and you have a lot of possibilities that you could explore with him...that were already covered in all that Expanded Universe that Disney decided to dump because they thought that their crap was better, managing to screw it up in three movies where the Expanded Universe managed to have ups and downs over the 30+ years of existence that it had.
Way to go, morons!
But I don't want to mock this film for other poor creative decisions, instead choosing to blame it's own poor creative decisions. So with that all out of the way, this is where the spoilers begin. If you don't want any spoilers, this is your chance to back out of the article. For the record, "Han Solo survives the movie" does not count as a spoiler.
Neither does "Chewbacca survives the movie".
...and neither does "Lando survives the movie".
We begin on Corellia where a young man named Han (Alden Ehrenreich) steals a speeder and makes plans to run off with his girlfriend Q'ira (Emilia Clarke). Like most red-blooded heterosexual males, he's happy to run off with Emilia Clarke, but in the escape attempt the two are separated and Han ends up joining the Imperial Academy with every intention of coming back for her. Because he has no surname, the registering officer gives him the name "Solo".
Three years later, he's a grunt trooper fighting a war against some planet's inhabitants and ends up getting involved with Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), a criminal and other criminals who are trying to steal Imperial equipment for a job. They double-cross him, and Han is thrown into a pit to meet with Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo). The two manage to escape and join the criminals anyway, but when the job goes south it leaves the trio (the only survivors) to go grovel to the crime lord Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany), and Han's quick thinking lands them the potential to make up for the job: stealing unrefined coaxium from Kessel.
What follows is...well, it's called a Western but that's only sort of accurate. It's more accurately a heist film in my mind, more in the vein of Ocean's Eleven than The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. I'm aware that the comparisons have been made to the Western genre and I'm not saying they aren't valid, but that wasn't exactly the feeling that I got walking away from this movie. The last Western I remember watching that had an elaborate con meant to fool the bad guy was Blazing Saddles, though that may speak more to my inexperience with cinema than with the actual absence of that in the genre.
The elephant in the room we have to address is Alden Ehrenreich as Han...and he does okay. He's not great, but then he's trying to follow in the footsteps of Harrison Ford who literally made the character of Han Solo what he is, so it's hardly a fair comparison. I think he does well as a younger Han than the one that Luke and Obi-Wan met in Mos Eisley's cantina, and the film doesn't go out of its way to make him grossly unlikable or give him such little character focus that we don't care what happens to him (such as Jyn Erso in Rogue One).
Chewbacca is Chewbacca. I prefer Peter Mayhew personally, but in the end he's a guy in a furry suit who is Han's best buddy. No real points for or against.
Q'ira, played by Emilia Clarke, is a character that we don't really get to hear much about. Rather like the Black Widow in the Avengers films, we get hints at her backstory in the three years between Han leaving Corellia and her joining up with Paul Bettany...but that's it. Like Scarlett Johansson in those movies, she does get into the action though Q'ira does at least have a bit of an arc...though perhaps she's just an incredibly good poker...or, in this case, sabacc, player as the ending reveals when she's managed to not only kill her boss, but move up within her criminal organization.
You also have Woody Harrelson playing the roguish smuggler Tobias Beckett. He's very much the scoundrel you'd expect of a man and plays the role as mentor and later antagonist quite well.
Then, of course, there comes the man who stole the show: Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. He does well, I won't lie about that. His scenes were probably the highlight of the film. Always looking to play the best angle, with his boundless charisma and charm, so he does that perfectly well. Again, like with Alden, he works well as a slightly younger Lando.
Unfortunately with Lando comes the droid L3-37, voiced by Phoebe-Waller Bridge. How does one best describe this character? Imagine if Jar Jar Binks went across Naboo protesting for Gungan rights at the top of his lungs. Like that. It's needlessly loud and annoying and I openly cheered when the film killed her off. Good riddance! The film tries to make you feel bad about it, but that's like asking me to feel bad about the death of Marlon Wayans in Dungeons & Dragons.
She will be joined by Admiral Pointless Purple Hair in the afterlife and they can both yap at each other about their issues.
And that really makes it out for the cast. Paul Bettany does very well as crimelord Dryden Vos, but that's really par for the course for him at this point. I do like it how none of his performances across all films I've ever seen him in never feel forced or phoned-in. He's honestly just a joy to watch and I'm sad we won't be seeing more of him.
As for the plot, it's a heist movie as I said before. Something goes wrong, they take on another job to make up for it and things inevitably go wrong as the best laid plans often do, causing them to break out the improvisation when things go south. I'd call in formulaic, but anything is formulaic when you break it down and the cast does manage to carry it for the most part.
Would this film be able to exist as an entity separate from the Star Wars name? Possibly. Unlike Rogue One, where it was intrinsically tied to the original film and would not really be able to work separate from that, a science fiction-based heist film could work. I'd even say it could work in the format as presented. Kind of like an outer space Indiana Jones.
See what I did there?
However, as it shows up on the screen...no. It needs the franchise. Mostly because...it references it. And references it. And references it. Granted, all the Star Wars films have echoed each other. The prequels did it to the originals, the originals echoed each other, and the sequel and spin-off films have done it up unto this point. So it's expected here. This familiarity and pattern, however, is what truly keeps the film from being great: it doesn't do anything new.
Before defenders of The Last Jedi get in touch, new things that aren't strategically designed to piss me off.
That being said, there were moments that I genuinely enjoyed. I loved Lando's scenes as I said before, his first meeting with Han and their sabacc game was generally interesting and I thought that Alden and Donald had a lot of good chemistry together. I was genuinely intrigued by the character of Q'ira and wanted to know about that three year gap and just how much she could have changed to become what she is now (topped off by Darth Maul apparently being her boss. Of all people). And yes, I punched the air when Han and Chewie took their places in the pilot and co-pilot seats of the Millennium Falcon for the first time.
But, in the end...it plays on some fond memories of the original movie...and that's really it. A bit ironic, given how utterly tone deaf to the fanbase that The Last Jedi was.
And no, for the record, I don't think the film suffered too much from the directors being switched and I am a bit ashamed to admit I don't see where a switch in feel, if any, took place. Ron Howard was a neat choice for this film and I honestly hope that Disney will pick him up again.
It's definitely not a bad movie and it doesn't nearly have the same feelings that the sequel trilogy films have had. Particularly not the one just passed. It was definitely enjoyable and had a lot of good moments...but the problem is that it relies too much on what came before. Of course, it also shows respect to what came before, which makes Lucasfilm's entire plan of trying to make us move on from the Original Trilogy all the more baffling.
But it is actually a fairly enjoyable film, showing that Disney's hand in Star Wars can actually be good when they focus on just trying to have a fun adventure and not trying to push crap down the throats of their audience. Maybe they should take this lesson for Episode IX.
...since JJ has already said that the massive negative fan reaction to The Last Jedi will not be affecting his decisions for that, I think we all already know the answer.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is now in theaters from Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.
Oh, and they referenced Teräs Käsi. Ballsy!
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