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Plot Summary: During an adventure into a dark criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his future copilot Chewbacca and encounters Lando Calrissian years before joining the Rebellion.

Director: Ron Howard

Writer: Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan

Runtime: 2h 15mins

Main Cast:

• Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo
• Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca
• Woody Harrelson as Beckett
• Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra
• Donald Gover as Lando Calrissian
• Thandie Newton as Val
• Phoebe Waller-Bridge as L3-37
• Paul Bettany as Dryden Vos

Review by: The Superior Spider-Sam

I admit, I was not at all excited for this movie when I first heard about it. In my case it is not because of “Star Wars Fatigue,” but because I genuinely wasn’t interested in a story about a young Han Solo before he joined Luke and the rebellion. The trailers piqued my interest a bit once I discovered we’d see Han’s first meeting with Lando, but something about the story, acting, and even the actors seemed…off to me. Now, after having watched, I can say this is a movie that should have been better than it was.

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What I Liked:

When I think about this movie and all that happened (which I will not spoil), I think we have a very fun summer movie. It has the action, the set pieces, the laughs, some charm, and a BIIIG (MAJOR!!) reveal.

I actually think it’s a more fun film than the wildly successful “Rogue One,” and actually plays more similarly to a MCU film. Now, what I liked about the movie are specific moments that were spread throughout (more on that in a bit), so I will try to lay out what really worked for me:

• I loved Han and Chewbacca meeting and becoming friends- I believe they had the most chemistry between them. This film actually made me care about and believe in the relationship these two shared as they went from hesitant allies to the best of friends.
• This may go without saying, but the movie looked phenomenal. As with “The Last Jedi” we had big set pieces and top-notch CGI, but the practical effects are what made this movie explode off the screen. The different environments we saw as the adventure moved from planet to planet did an excellent job of showcasing how big “a galaxy far far away” actually is.
• Fans will appreciate the subtle and not-so-subtle references this movie makes to the larger Star Wars universe. For example, the famous Kessel run is a major point in this film.
• Speaking of the Kessel run, I genuinely enjoyed the type of movie this was meant to be. We didn’t have a galactic scale war between the dark and light sides of the force; nor was there wasn’t a machine capable of destroying planets that needed to be stopped. This was a heist film in which our protagonists needed to succeed for personal reasons- not to save millions of lives.
• I enjoyed Han Solo the character much more than I believed I would. He is a legitimate hero even before meeting Luke. We knew him as the smart mouthed arrogant playboy and smuggler- which he kind of is- but he is all about doing what is best for people. It was really nice seeing him develop as a character and step into the shoes as the main hero of the story. For all his bravado, he is a good man underneath and I was really impressed with the choices he made and the way he acted upon his decisions.

What I Didn’t Like:

Now it is time to get critical. I mentioned this was a more fun movie than “Rogue One” –which is true- bit in no other way is it better. Before I go on my rant, I will sum up the problem with this movie- it is very BORING. Dear lord, there were so many lulls in this movie between things happening that it felt AT LEAST 30 minutes. I saw this movie twice because the first time I fell asleep, twice. I had a long day so I didn’t blame the movie I just chalked it up to being tired. After I watched it the second time I realized that I hadn’t missed a single pivotal moment during my first watch. If one can fall asleep TWICE and still catch every major story point- then there is a problem.

Too much space was in between things happening. For example, very early in the movie Han meets the crew he eventually works with to complete the heist. The moment between meeting them and actually discussing joining them was filled with about 5 minutes of useless filler. This leads me to another problem- the pacing. This movie jumped around so much it was crazy. I would love to give an example here, but that would lead into spoiler territory- just trust me, you will notice the amount of times one scene jumps to another scene.

There were reports that this movie was delayed because the acting was not up to the director’s standards. I can see that. Ron Howard is a wonderful talent but he needed more from his actors. No one- not one was terrible, but not one stood out. Why get all of these big names if none of them are scene stealers. The closest thing we received to resonant was Donald Glover’s portrayal of Lando, but he was not in the film nearly long enough for it to really stick. Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, and Emilia Clarke were fine as Han, Beckett, and Qi’ra respectively, but that’s it- just fine. There was nothing spectacular about any of their performances that made me believe only they would be able to pull it off. I felt anyone one of them could have been replaced with someone and the movie would not be worse- this is especially true of the biggest offender Paul Bettany who plays “villain” Dryden Vos.

This “villain” deserves quotes around his role because he was not a big enough presence in this movie to make me feel he was threat. I cannot completely blame the actor because he can only do so much when he’s not even on screen, so I think this was a script issue. This movie is 175 minutes long and the main villain might have been on screen for 18 of them. I actually forgot he was the reason for the heist until he showed up again near the end of the film. This is perhaps why the movie felt dull at a lot of points- because I did not feel there was any kind of urgency to what the protagonists were trying to accomplish.

Okay so the cast was weak, the villain was non-existent, but what about the heist itself? This was one of my favorite parts of the film- from the moment the heist began with the journey to Kessel.- but it still wasn’t awesome. I do not have a high bar for movies, even if it is a summer blockbuster so the fact that this movie failed in it’s main plot point was a disappointment. It is hard to quantify what exactly went wrong because if I described word for word what happened, you would imagine something utterly epic, which is what I assume the producers and director thought when they read the script. As best as I can tell, what happened with Solo is the same thing that happens when a Broadway show is made into a movie. Even if the actors replicate every line and action from the play, the actual execution as a movie is often not great. I think Solo failed to capitalize on what certainly seems like an awesome script.

Images Courtesy of IMDB