Released: May 2018
Director: Ron Howard
Rated PG-13
Run Time: 135 Minutes
Distributor: Disney/LucasFilm
Genre: Action/Science Fiction
Cast:
Alden Ehrenreich: Han Solo
Joonas Suotamo: Chewbacca
Woody Harrelson: Beckett
Emilia Clarke: Qi’ra
Donald Glover: Lando Calrissian
Thandie Newton: Val
Paul Bettany: Drydan Vos
I’ve been a huge Star Wars fan since the moment I could walk. That’s a long time to be a fan. To me, the Original Trilogy are some of the greatest science fiction/fantasy films ever made. In fact, and I’ve mentioned this more than once, the original Star Wars changed the way movies were made in terms of story-telling, visual effects, editing and music. The original film is beyond reproach. Not even George Lucas’s tinkering could change that. I never got the chance to see the original films in theaters. I honestly hope they do a re-release someday, so I can say that I’ve seen every single Star Wars movie in theaters. That being said, aside from the original trilogy, I have seen every single Star Wars film in theaters. Were all of them great? Not really. Attack of the Clones is what I used to consider to be the worst film in the franchise. Ever since Disney bought the license and the company from Mr. Lucas, we started seeing Star Wars films every year since 2015 with The Force Awakens. I was excited first, because I didn’t have to wait very long for a film in the series. On the other hand, though, I was genuinely worried that at some point, Disney was going to drop the ball with Star Wars. Ladies and gentleman: I present to you Solo: A Star Wars Story, the ball that Disney dropped.
As the film opens, we see a young street criminal named Han Solo as he tries to find a way to get off of the Imperial-controlled planet of Corellia. After seeing his girlfriend kidnapped by a group of gangsters, Han joins the Empire in the hopes of coming back to find Qi’ra, his girlfriend. On the battlefield, Han runs into a group of smugglers led by Tobias Beckett. After seemingly left behind by Beckett, Han befriends the Wookiee, Chewbacca and they team up with Beckett to land the biggest score so they can be free. Right off the bat, there are a number of problems with the narrative. The biggest problem is with the concept of the film. If you’ve read any of the old Star Wars novels dealing with Han Solo, then you would have already known about his backstory and where he came from. This film does nothing to illuminate any of that. In fact, it really does nothing to make Han stand out in any way. The story is your basic origin/heist film and it really isn’t that good at being either. The screenplay and the writing are all over the place. It does nothing to really expand on what we already know about the character. To be honest, as much as I love Han Solo as a character, there really wasn’t a whole lot to the character aside from him being a smuggler with a heart of gold. This is as generic a story as you can get, and for Star Wars, that’s a very bad thing.
When it comes to the characters, the only one here that truly stands out in a good is Lando Calrissian, played by Donald Glover. Donald Glover really makes the character his own, while maintaining that charm and charisma that Billy Dee Williams brought to the role. I genuinely believed that we were looking at a young Lando. Since Peter Mayhew is too old and out of shape to continue playing Chewbacca, they brought in someone who is nearly as tall and a lot younger: Joonas Suotamo. At 6’11, Joonas isn’t as tall as Mr. Mayhew, but he still towers over everyone else, and I think he’s the perfect replacement for Peter Mayhew. Woody Harrelson is one of my favorite actors, but his character of Beckett is someone that could have been played by anybody. There’s not a whole to the character aside from being a mentor-type. Paul Bettany is wasted as Dryden Vos, the crime lord that Beckett owes money to. Bettany is only in the film for maybe about 10-15 minutes and even then, Vos is not a character that you’re going to remember after watching the film. The one member of the cast that the film really got wrong was Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo. I’m sure that Alden is a decent actor, but he’s playing a role that was made famous by Harrison Ford. There is no way that you could possibly make that character your own, especially since the image of Ford as Solo has been ingrained in the minds of audiences for over 40 years. Those are some big shoes to fill and Mr. Ehrenreich just can’t do it. He doesn’t have the charisma nor the attitude that is required for the role and in a film like this where getting the character right is paramount, Disney jumped the shark. They screwed up, royally.
It’s not all bad, as some of the action sequences are a lot of fun. The train sequence is really cool and so is the Kessel Run. Yes, we get to see the Kessel Run that was done in less than 12 parsecs. Visually spectacular, and definitely one of the highlights of the film. The Millenium Falcon is…well…the Millenium Falcon. It’s an awesome ship and basically a character of its own. The film is also beautifully shot, with some really outstanding landscapes and grimy cities that we travel through. The visually effects are fantastic, with some actual puppets that are being used instead being all CGI, so that’s a good thing.
Now, I’m sure that everybody’s heard about the problems facing Solo, right? When it was discovered that directors Lord and Miller were fired because they were doing things that Kathleen Kennedy didn’t particularly care for, was one of the early signs that the film was not going to be good. So, she brought in Ron Howard to try and “fix” the film. Here’s the problem: The film was 70 percent completed when Lord and Miller were fired, so there were massive re-shoots and new direction brought on by Ron Howard. As a result, you can tell there are conflicting tones and directing styles throughout the film. It’s really jarring to see the film like some kind of patchwork of bits and pieces, but nothing came together. The writing was also all over the place. There was no real villain to the film, which would have helped immensely, and some of the “twists and turns” were utterly predictable. There was a lot of throwbacks to stories that were referenced in the original film, and quite frankly, it was more of a distraction. Not only that, because of the problems behind the camera, the pacing of the film is completely fucked. Yeah, the movie has its moments were it is a lot of fun, but the rest of it is boring. There are too many stretches where nothing happens and no real character development takes place. That is not a word that you want to hear about a Star Wars film. People had complained about Episodes 1 and 2 being dull, but not like this.
It used to be that people had to wait three years for the next Star Wars movie. There was a reason for that. That gave George Lucas the time to iron out and get his story the best he could before filming it, and while he didn’t always succeed, as is the case with the Prequel films, they were far more consistent in terms of tone and pacing. The bad decisions that went into this film are very, VERY obvious. I knew that when Disney wanted to start making yearly Star Wars films, that one day we would end up with a failure, and here it is. Solo is not a movie that should have been made. Even if it was a good idea, it was poorly executed with some really questionable casting with Alden Ehrenreich, who doesn’t even look like Han Solo. As I said before, there are moments of greatness within the film, but they are few and far in between. As heist film, Solo fails to be exciting and thrilling, and as an origin story, the film doesn’t tread any new territory, or they were afraid to take it in a different direction. Either way, the film fails on a multitude of levels. I have a feeling that Disney knows that Solo might be the first Star Wars film that flops. Honestly, can we have a film that isn’t an origin story or a prequel of sorts? Can we have a fully original story set in one of the biggest fictional universes ever created? Is that really too much to ask? I can’t believe I’m doing this and saying this, but Solo is easily the worst Star Wars film that I’ve ever seen. It just blows my mind that we finally have a Star Wars film that is worse than Attack of the Clones. Congratulations, Disney: You done fucked it up.
My Final Recommendation: Somebody please fire Kathleen Kennedy before she does even more damage. 5/10