I went and saw Solo: A Star Wars Story today. For a movie with such low expectations, it is still so highly debated. It’s because it’s Star Wars, right? Star Wars is always a hot topic for everyone. And then Han Solo is just one of the best characters ever, right?
I know when I first saw the trailer for this film, I was a little underwhelmed. It didn’t look like it was going to be bad per say, but it looked like it was going to be sub par. It looked like it was going to show us Han Solo doing “Han Solo-y” things without giving real deep insight into his character/developing him further. It was just going to be a playful romp, if that (the trailers made it look like it was it was trying to hype up something that was in reality kind of boring).
So now that I’ve seen it, did all my predictions come true?
Well... sort of?
I will say I definitely enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.
It was, in fact, a playful romp full of Han Solo doing “Han Solo-y” things. However, I wouldn’t quite call it boring. On the other hand, I wouldn’t call it AMAZING either. It was somewhere in the middle. There were some parts that were a lot of fun and really intense (ex: the famous Kessel Run was probably my favorite part of the movie) and then there were other parts that were just whatever.
You could tell that the filmmakers’s priorities were on doing Han Solo and his “lore” justice. Han, Chewie, and Lando were by far the best characters while the others were stereotypes, forgettable, or throwaways. All the scenes alluded to or mentioned by Han, Lando, etc. in the Star Wars films were all the best scenes (they had the most attention to detail, were well acted, had lots of focus, etc.)
Meanwhile, anything else that didn’t revolve around those scenes was a little less interesting and/or even brushed over. This was a bit of a problem sometimes since the overarching plot didn’t revolve around say Han and Chewie meeting or how Han got the Millennium Falcon; those were just side scenes that tied into the bigger plot.
I AM NOT SAYING IT WAS BORING because it wasn’t. There was just some stuff that was less interesting than other stuff and I think if the film wanted to be truly great, the filmmakers should have put equal attention on everything.
I have to praise the acting. I was kind of thinking that the filmmakers were overplaying Alden Ehrenreich’s performance and that Harrison Ford might have been under some contract or something to praise him in order to build this movie up. However, after watching this movie, I can confidently say that he does an excellent job. (Again, priorities on capturing Han Solo). Of course, there may be people who disagree with me, but I completely believed that he was the same Han Solo from the originals. Obviously, no one will EVER replace Harrison Ford, but if we had to get someone else, this was a good choice.
Then there was Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. Standing ovation for him! From his facial expressions, to his hand gestures, down to his capes. He was Lando!
There were a lot of creative ideas in this movie, more than I expected. Again, I was expecting a sub par, standard movie, but it came out and surprised me. I don’t know how many people agree with me, but I thoroughly enjoyed how Han and Chewie met. I thought it was inventive and believable. I was expecting something standard like Han gets recruited by those thugs for a job (as seen in the trailers) and Chewie’s already a member (or also gets recruited) and then they just bond over time. But nope. Something else completely different happened.
Then again, there were some weird moments where it tried to get too creative. I’m still trying to figure out this one moment at the end. Like, what on earth was going on? I thought I knew Star Wars pretty well, but... weirdness. Have I missed something? It’s hard to keep track of what is canon ever since Disney took over. It seemed to me like the writers were like “ooh, this would be SO cool!” and then didn’t think about if it would make sense. (Go see the movie and you’ll know exactly what part I’m talking about).
Speaking of confusing, anything that had to do with the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate was just that. I don’t think it was super thought out and was just the average big bad crime syndicate seen in every mob movie; but then it was made confusing by trying to make it mysterious. And THEN it wasn’t even explained by the end which frustrates me.
I did enjoy the movie though. I liked it way better than Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It had more interesting and memorable characters than that one and a distinct three act plot that relies on each of the previous acts in order to flow (so you don’t feel the need to skip to the end to get to the good stuff and can still understand what is happening).
I know that everyone likes the Star Wars movies for different reasons, but I like Star Wars simply because 1) It’s Star Wars and it’s fun to watch 2) creative story and characters 3) fun/cool action. I think that this film hit all those buttons.
I think if you’re in doubt, go see this movie. If you like Star Wars, go see this movie. Don’t be a movie or Star Wars snob. This won’t waste your time or offend your Star Wars sensibilities. It gets everything about Han Solo right, I promise you. It may not be the most amazing, fantastic Star Wars movie ever, but it is a great Han Solo movie.
With that said, I think at the moment, I’d give this movie a 7/10. (Prone to change in the future with more viewings.)
TRAILER
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