Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alden Ehrenreich, and Donald Glover in Solo: A Star Wars Story (Walt Disney Pictures, 2018)
Warning: Review contains mild spoilers for Solo: A Star Wars Story based only on trailers and promotional materials.
Ever since Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, Star Wars films have been brought back into the mainstream. For nearly ten years, Star Wars had left a sour taste in the mouths of fans and moviegoers everywhere as the prequels were the last remnant of theatrical Star Wars films for the foreseeable future. With The Force Awakens (J.J Abrams, 2015), Star Wars finally won back the public, with Disney producing the best Star Wars film since the original trilogy. The Force Awakens not only garnered high critical and fan praise (matching a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93% with A New Hope [George Lucas, 1977]) but also remains the third highest-grossing film of all time, worldwide, at 2 billion dollars. Star Wars had finally returned to being the box office juggernaut it had been known for in the past. Nearly three years later, however, Disney released Solo: A Star Wars Story—the second non-mainline anthology film since 2016’s Rogue One (Gareth Edwards, 2016). Languishing for years in development hell, mired by significant directorial changes (directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie [2014], 21 Jump Street [2012]) being replaced by Ron Howard (Apollo 13 [1995], Rush [2013]), reshoots, and acting coaches, Solo: A Star Wars Story currently sits at a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes (the lowest-rated Star Wars film since the prequels) and is on track to be the first Star Wars film to lose money (nearly 50 million dollars). Unfortunately, unlike The Force Awakens, Solo: A Star Wars Story takes a step backward to return Star Wars to prequel-level quality. Solo: A Star Wars Story lacks emotional depth and is hindered by inconsistent pace, poorly written characters, and a misplaced use of nostalgia, only providing surface-based levels of entertainment with no payoff, emotional resonance, or even reason for the audience to care.
Solo: A Star Wars Story takes place years before A New Hope, as the First Galactic Empire starts its early reign on the galaxy. Organized crime syndicates are widespread on mid and outer rim worlds due to the fall of the Galactic Republic—leaving many to fend for themselves to survive. In Solo: A Star Wars Story, a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) escapes his ship building home world of Corellia, looking for adventure and a new life. Solo: A Star Wars Story revolves around Han Solo as he tries to return to Corellia to save his childhood friend and romantic interest Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) from the clutches of the crime lord Lady Proxima (voice of Linda Hunt). After a failed heist, a startling discovery, and the promise of immeasurable wealth, Han teams up with Qi’ra, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo replacing Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca since The Last Jedi [Rian Johnson, 2017]), Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), and Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) as they seek out the hyper fuel substance coaxium for Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany), leader of the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn.
Emilia Clarke in Solo: A Star Wars Story (Walt Disney Pictures, 2018)
Simply put, Solo: A Star Wars Story is an entertaining film. Action set pieces are grandiose in scale, space battles are adrenaline-fueled, and Star Wars Easter eggs and references are plastered throughout the film. Whether from more niche works like the animated television show Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Dave Filoni 2008-2015) or more popular theatrical features like Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (George Lucas, 1999), there is a lot of references to enjoy regardless of the audience’s previous investment in Star Wars lore. For example, famous events that fans have been waiting for, such as the Kessel Run or the Sabacc match between Han and Lando for the Millennium Falcon, are finally depicted in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Unfortunately, these set pieces and Easter eggs act as tiring and manufactured plot points rather than humble and practical nostalgia trips. This issue of leaning too heavily on nostalgia is most adamantly exemplified in the film’s rushed first act. In the span of nearly forty-five minutes, Han escapes Corellia, meets up with Chewbacca, fails a train heist, reunites with Qi’ra, and embarks on another journey with Lando and his robot pilot L3-37 (voice of Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in search of the coaxium. The film is so concerned with beating the audience over the head with action, plot, Easter eggs, and references that the overall speed of the film feels way too fast and emotionally sterile. For example, references regarding niche characters such as Aurra Sing (a prominent bounty hunter in Star Wars: Clone Wars) are presented as more of a wink to the camera than placed for logical or relevant reasons. Furthermore, this pacing issue causes the film to overlook crucial character-building scenes needed in the exposition to allow for payoff in the film’s second and third acts. Characters in Solo: A Star Wars Story feel more like smugglers or bounty hunters you would pass in the Mos Eisley Cantina rather than fully explored, lived-in characters that have purpose and depth. Though this is sufficient for certain characters like Val (Westworld’s Thandie Newton) and Rio Durant (voice of Jon Favreau), the lack of characterization in Beckett, Qi’ra, and even Han leaves much to be desired. This issue eventually affects the latter two thirds of the film, as there is no bedrock of emotional investment or earned nostalgia, causing the final scenes that demand these emotions, such as the Kessel Run or the revealing end scene, to fall flat and miss the mark entirely.
Thandie Newton in Solo: A Star Wars Story (Walt Disney Pictures, 2018)
Overall, the main characters of Solo: A Star Wars Story provide basic entertainment, with the clear standouts being Donald Glover’s Lando and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s L3-37. Glover’s portrayal of Billy Dee Williams’s original character is executed with the utmost perfection. Glover is as suave, cool, and nuanced as Billy Dee Williams was nearly thirty years before. It’s refreshing to see that Glover does not put his own spin on the character but channels a younger version of Billy Dee Williams’s original interpretation. Most prominently, when Lando is paired with the social justice droid L3-37, Solo: A Star Wars Story truly shines. Whether it’s quips of Lando asking “what do you need L3?” and her responding “equal rights,” or L3-37 describing how she could never have a robot-to-human romantic relationship, there is a lot of great writing, laughs, and fun for the audience to enjoy. Unfortunately, the biggest issue with Solo: A Star Wars Story is Alden Ehrenreich’s portrayal of Han Solo. When Harrison Ford debuted the character in 1977, audiences fell in love. Solo was mysterious, cocky, careless, and, overall, nuanced. Ford has even gone on record to say that he never cared for the character, thus leading to his laid-back, lackadaisical performance. In the public eye, Ford is Han Solo (and, equally, Indiana Jones); likewise, Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark, Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool, and Johnny Depp is Jack Sparrow. The actor will go down in history with the character. Alternatively, Ehrenreich’s portrayal of Solo can be best described as a cross between a poor Harrison Ford impersonation and a conventional cocky hero. Ehrenreich’s awkward physical mannerisms, lackluster delivery of poorly written jokes, and stick-to-the-plan attitude doesn’t feel like Han Solo but an entirely different character. This lack of recognizability is also apparent from a character-writing standpoint as Solo’s actions in the film do not reflect the character or even a younger version of the character, for that matter. This is most apparent when Solo has to kill a fellow colleague near the end of the film. In this scene, Solo is in a standoff where he shoots first, killing his fellow colleague. As fans of Star Wars know, Solo shot the notorious bounty hunter Greedo first in A New Hope to avoid capture and certain death by Jabba the Hutt. In Solo: A Star Wars Story, Solo has no reason to shoot first, nor has that lesson ever been communicated to him throughout the film. This writing decision not only makes zero sense logically but also pins Solo as a one-note, cold-hearted killer rather than a kind, mysterious, morally good criminal—missing the opportunity to explore and complicate Solo’s character arc in the process.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is a fun and entertaining sci-fi movie that lacks substance and identity in comparison to other Star Wars films. Aside from Donald Glover’s fantastic rendition as Lando Calrissian and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s L3-37, Solo: A Star Wars Story’s biggest issue is the writing and portrayal of Solo himself. Specifically, given the absence of emotional depth, jarring pace, and superficial engagement with nostalgia, Solo: A Star Wars Story leaves much to be desired, disappointingly missing the mark for what it tries to achieve.
6.5/10
Author Biography
Jason Husak is a University of Alberta film studies graduate who currently resides in Edmonton, Canada. He hopes to pursue his passion for film by doing a graduate degree in film studies at the University of Toronto. For more in-depth film reviews, discussion, and analyses, you can follow Jason on his personal Twitter and Instagram or his film and entertainment podcast Boring People, Bad Opinions on podcast and social media services.
Film Details
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
USA
Director Ron Howard
Runtime 135 minutes
