Solo: A Star Wars Story is a 2018 sci-fi film about the early adventures of one of the franchise’s most memorable characters.
There are near countless things in movies that need not be told and yet, studios seem driven to do so, constantly looking to milk a popular story with unnecessary origins and starters, filling in blanks that are far better left to the imagination … or not at all. Such is the case with the Star Wars films, movies that keep padding out the now classic trilogy of the late 70s and early 80s with a mix of letdowns and successes that have kept fans lapping up for more year after year. Count me one of them.
The story centers on young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich), a desperate man living on Corellia with his girl Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke), forced, like others to steal to survive. Trying to escape when things go sour, Han manages to escape while Qi’ra is captured. He vows to come back and save her. Three years later, he’s working with Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), a high-end criminal who becomes a kind of mentor, leading him to a slippery crime lord named Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany), who tasks them with stealing a hefty cache of coaxium, a hyperspace fuel much in demand. But can they survive?
I’m a huge fan of Star Wars, growing up on the original three and even finding enough in the next three to appreciate their contribution to the canon. When Disney took over and the recent entries starting coming every year, I’ll admit, I was initially taken by the prospect and while the luster has faded, still enjoy being whisked off to a galaxy far, far away.
The problem is that the movies have become so big and so studied, they are bound by an audience that are well beyond fans – more religiously zealot-ic in how they ought to be produced. Who can blame them? We’ve all become invested in one of the greatest stories ever told, leaving filmmakers a universe endlessly rife with imagination and potential anchored to a set of standards that become limiting, especially when they cater to tickingly the fancy of nostalgia-seeking supporters.
Solo: A Star Wars Story plays that game, most of it unavoidable in turning back the pages of the Hans Solo biography. Without a doubt, some of that is really fun, and honestly, pretty clever in how the writers Jonathan Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan weave it all into a story that strives to answers a series of questions most didn’t even have. Want to know more about that Kessel run mentioned in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)? You will. And there’s that business with parsecs, too. How about how Han even got his name? Yup. There’s little left uncovered. Most grin-inducing fun.
Howard also strings together some spectacular set pieces that are both ridiculously good-looking and emotionally compelling, from an action-heavy runaway train robbery to a jaw-dropping (ginormous) monster in the dark chase at the center of hell in space. You care about these people, mostly because you know where they end up.
But not everyone, the film so overloaded with spectacle, it often has no room for the myriad characters it throws at us, including thankless roles by the woefully underused Thandie Newton, who disappears just when we are getting to know her and Bettany, who is not nearly as weighty as he needs to be (think how memorable Jabba the Hutt is in comparison – no one is ever going to by saying “Dryden Vos” twenty years from now. Or less. I had to look it up just to remember. Even Harrelson is less than impactful, feeling more like a stock prop in the background than a character we’ll be wanting to have his backstory told a few decades from now.
What works best is the inner circle, Hans, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), and Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), the trio all the reasons why to stay in step. Glover is the most convincing as a younger version of the famous smuggler and gambler played by Billy Dee Williams in the original series. He’s charming, funny, cool cats cool, and great fun to watch, easily chewing up all the right scenery at all the right times. You look forward to when he’s on screen.
That said, what’s done most right – and something that could have so easily been tripped up – is the relationship between Chewie and Solo, one that starts out on a high note and never once falters from there. I love how their first meeting is an homage to the Rancor pit in Revenge of the Jedi before transitioning into a smart and well-earned moment that eternally binds the pair. The movie then takes that connection and builds upon it one after the other, recognizing our emotional stake in their future and working it just right without manipulation. That’s a tricky line to play on but they do and do it very well. You can’t walk away from this and not feel that.
As a swashbuckler, something sort of woven into the DNA of Han Solo (thank you, Harrison Ford), the movie has its fair share of adventure and thankfully, good humor as well, even if it (rightfully) gets dark in a number of places. It’s not going to be a classic by any stretch, and while it has its place in the breadth of it all, doesn’t quite have the joy its origins have.