ATTENTION: SPOILERS AHEAD!
I watched Solo: A Star Wars Story this Sunday, and when you don’t have great expectations due to the awful experience watching The Last Jedi, and rewatching it 2 days ago in Blu-ray (what didn’t change my opinion that The Last Jedi is a very very bad movie, and the worst Star Wars so far), I went to see the most improbable Star Wars movie that could be done…
But Solo is a good surprise. It starts with a well done “fast & furious” sequence across the streets to catch the attention, and some romance in the air (the Gold Dice from The Last Jedi, anyone?), but the scenes were too darks, maybe the movie copy I catched wasn’t so good. But the movie also delivers other good action sequences like the attack to the train, one of the best action scenes ever seen in a Star Wars movie so far.
But like any superhero “origin” movie, they explain how Han gets his name (“Solo”), how he met Chewie (and almost was eaten by him – what remember us Luke in the Rancor pit in Return of the Jedi) and how he met Lando, and how he won the Millennium Falcon “in a honest game”… All backstory we already know from the previous movies, comics and books. But we always wanted to see in a SW movie.
Solo is a good movie, funny, with great action scenes, good characters, full of twists, turns and betrayals, but not so good as Rogue One. Alden Ehrenreich is a good actor, but doesn’t convinces (what reinforces reports of Alden having lessons with an acting coach during the reshoots). For who suffered all his youth, he seems too joyful compared to the cynical and selfish Han we all know from A New Hope. Donald Glover did well as Lando, and Woody Harrelson is an experience actor and a good choice for Beckett.
Emilia Clarke is a bad actress and every Game of Thrones fan knows that, she was awful in Terminator Genisys and ruined all Qi’ra scenes. But have Emilia in this movie maybe was a try from Disney to get attention from GoT fans that do not are interested in SW, while for them Emilia is some kind of goddess like Daenerys is. But the Disney Star Wars era doesn’t have place for princesses in danger or helpless girls, and Qi’ra kicks and kills the main villain Dryden Voss while Han just watches…
Of course there are weak points and forced situations in the script signed by Lawrence Kasdan with his son Jonathan. He wrote Episode V but also gave us awful movies like Dreamcatcher and others. I don’t know how many times the script was rewritten to agree with the changes when Ron Howard took the movie after the original directors were fired. If you think Solo is too up, I don’t want to know how it would be if Christopher Miller e Phil Lord had being kept as directors. A parody maybe?
The change of director seems to me now the best thing that could have happened. Although not familiar with the Star Wars universe (he would have turned down the direction of The Phantom Menace), the Oscar winner for A Beautiful Mind was able to fit the right dose of jokes, humor and surprises with tension, action and drama.
Darth Maul apparition (with Ray Park back to the character he played in The Phantom Menace) at the end was so good to the movie as Leia in Rogue One, but more details and his real presence in scene (not just as hologram) would work better. But he was a good surprise, to remind us while you are not familiar yet with new actors playing old characters, that we are watching a Star Wars movie, without Jedi, lightsaber duels and no one talking about the Force, but a Star Wars movie. Just for curiosity, this is the first SW movie without C-3P0 and R2-D2.
Solo is at least a good tried to bring back the old feeling of watching a good Star Wars movie. With some adjusts here and there, certainly more movies will be done (is known that Alden Ehrenreich signed for 3 movies), and we will see more of the young Han soon. Maybe we also can think about a Boba Fett cameo and Jabba as the main villain for the next Solo movie.
And now, let’s wait the Kenobi movie!
Recommended Reading:
Solo’s Gold Dice Are Even More Important Than You Think
The Best Moments of Solo: A Star Wars Story
Solo: A Star Wars Story Reshoots: What’s Lord & Miller And What’s Ron Howard?
How Darth Maul Is Still Alive in Solo: A Star Wars Story
How and Why The Millennium Falcon Keeps Changing So Much
Solo: A Star Wars Story Writers Explain Maul’s Shocking Cameo
Solo: A Star Wars Story’s Ending Explained
Solo Changes the Story of How Han Met Chewbacca
Mos Eisley Chronicles 