Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story

As the title suggests, an origin story for loveable rogue Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich), who goes on all manner of space adventures whilst trying to find his way back to his lady-love Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke). Along the way we also learn that Solo isn’t his surname by birth. Woody Harrelson and Thandie Newton play a couple of roguish smugglers Han meets during his time fighting in a war. Paul Bettany plays a criminal who takes up with Qi’ra in Han’s absence. Donald Glover plays cool smuggler Lando Calrissian, current owner of a fast ship named The Millennium Falcon.

The first “Star Wars” movie since “The Clone Wars” animated movie that I didn’t see in cinemas, this 2018 film from director-for-hire Ron Howard (who peaked as a director with the excellent “Parenthood”) and screenwriting father-and-son duo Jake Kasdan (director of “Bad Teacher” and the even worse “Sex Tape”) and Lawrence Kasdan (“The Empire Strikes Back”, writer-director of “Body Heat”) is the biggest disappointment in the franchise since “Revenge of the Sith”. However, it’s still “Star Wars” and unlike that piece of shit Happy Meal “Clone Wars” animated dreck, there’s still enough fun to be had here to (narrowly) get this one over the line despite some quite big drawbacks. Hell, I even still have some affection for the prequels, the unfairly maligned “The Phantom Menace” in particular. So please don’t think this is a bad film. But boy, this one sure did let me down after several really damn terrific “Star Wars” movies before it (Yes, I loved “The Last Jedi”). Perhaps instead of being a bad film, it’s just a poor “Star Wars” film.

Things don’t get off to the greatest of starts. I didn’t mind that “Rogue One” didn’t start with the usual “Star Wars” intro and crawl, but the way it’s done here over an action sequence? Not a fan of that. The character of Lady Proxima (voiced by the inimitable Linda Hunt) is an interesting creature we sadly don’t see enough of in the film. Our two leads however, are far less interesting. When one of those leads is Han Freakin’ Solo, that’s both disappointing and frankly bizarre. It’s the biggest problem with the film: I didn’t give two fucks about Han Solo, Emilia Clarke’s character, or ultimately the plot. Amazing for a franchise that I consider to be such an important and long-lasting part of my life, but I really did feel oddly detached from this. That is largely because, like the prequels this one’s strengths are on a visual, not story or character level. On that level it has its entertainment value, and thus it earns the score I’m affording it. However, as a “Star Wars” fan, this isn’t acceptable. Even “The Phantom Menace” managed to sweep me up a whole lot better than this did.

Look, Alden Ehrenreich just doesn’t work as the man normally played by Harrison Ford. Doesn’t look like Ford, doesn’t sound like Ford, and more relevantly doesn’t act the way Ford portrayed the character. The first two don’t really matter, but I’d argue the latter does so that the audience can more easily join the dots here and go with the story. He doesn’t, so I couldn’t, and I didn’t. I love the character of Han Solo as created by George Lucas, revisited by J.J. Abrams, and enacted by Harrison Ford. But this Han Solo is a colourless, charmless imposter. He’s actually boring. One of the most interesting and most iconic characters in cinematic history has been rendered boring by Howard, The Kasdans, and yes by Ehrenreich who brings none of the roguish charm, swagger, or macho idiocy that simply are Han Solo and I refuse to believe that this being a prequel excuses it. Hell, Ehrenreich doesn’t even bother adopting the Han Solo haircut to give us even a slight way into the character as an audience. At best he plays Han like Brad Pitt doing a poor Harrison Ford impersonation. Really poor. This Han is just some guy who does some things because of some girl. In outer space. Even worse than Ehrenreich, but perhaps less important is Emilia Clarke as love interest Qi’ra. The Mother of Dragons has always been the weakest actress on “Game of Thrones” in my view (even if Lena Headey seems to go to the same well of facial expressions far too much, she’s still good at it), and she’s not any better in this than she was in “Terminator: Genisys”. She seems even more out of her depth in cinema than on television, and without cool dragons and compelling characterisation, loses the fight to hold the camera’s gaze and audience’s giveashit factor. We all know the characters in “Rogue One” were pretty much one-and-done characters, and yet through both scripting and performance, they were at least able to command your attention for two hours and make you care. Clarke is wooden, playing a vanilla character, and I simply didn’t care. As a couple, Han Solo and Qi’ra share far less romantic chemistry on screen than Lando Calrissian and his oddly flirty droid. That’s funny, but it’s not a joke I’m making. I also have to say I found Thandie Newton’s cranky pants character a constant source of irritation, albeit a minor one comparatively. That said, if I were forced to sport the most unflattering afro in cinematic history, I’d probably be a bit bemused, too. Seriously, that thing is awful, and afros are hard to make uncool if you ask me.

Aside from the two leads, the biggest problem here is the episodic plot structure of the film. The film’s narrative just doesn’t flow. Instead it’s a film full of a series of moments being checked off a list. Here’s the bit where Han Aside from the two leads, the biggest problem here is the episodic plot structure of the film. The film’s narrative just doesn’t flow. Instead it’s a film full of a series of moments being checked off a list. Here’s the bit where Han and Chewy meet. Here’s Han going off to war.  and Chewy meet. Here’s Han going off to war. Here’s how Han Solo met Lando. Here’s the expected story of how Han got possession of the Millennium Falcon. And so on. The whole film is like that. Some of it is more fun than at other points but it just plays like a series of mini-adventures for about 75% of its length rather than a big overall plot. Speaking of the plot, the film doesn’t just feature the character of Lando Calrissian it also features a character who serves a similar function and that second Lando can be spotted from a mile away, unfortunately. I also have to say that Howard and the Kasdans have given us essentially “Star Wars” re-imagined as a con artist comedy, and on that note it’s not all that funny a lot of the time. When it is funny, it’s terrific, I’ll give it that. But a few too many gags landed with a thud for me, mainly because our leading man doesn’t have terribly good comic timing. That’s odd because apparently Ron Howard was specifically brought on board to apparently reshoot about 70% of the film due to the previous directors (Phil Lord and Chris Miller) adopting an unwanted comedic approach (other say they deviated from the Kasdans’ script). I shudder to think that this was the supposed remedy to that. Was the original a “Naked Gun!”-style spoof or something? Final among the film’s flaws for me is the tinny, cheap-sounding music score by John Powell (“Happy Feet”, “Jason Bourne”), performing elevator music renditions of the majestic John Williams themes we all know and love. It’s really inadequate I must say. As for the film’s big ‘surprise’ cameo, I had it spoiled for me in advance, and whilst I understand that other “Star Wars” media provides an explanation for how it’s possible, I think it was a bit of a mistake to put the character in this film. Either that, or the Kasdans ought to have filled the uninitiated in on how that particular character could’ve possibly turned up.

So now that I’ve spent quite a bit of time pretty much eviscerating the film, let me now somehow detail why I’m ultimately giving the film (barely, mind you) a pretty good rating and overall (mild) recommendation. First of all, the film looks terrific all-round. When I said earlier that it was a bit like the prequels in that the visuals worked more than anything else, the difference is that the visuals here, as in the other recent “Star Wars” films, give the film a look that is still in-keeping with the original trilogy. As pretty as the prequels were, they were a bit too pretty, everything lacked that lived-in quality the original trilogy had. So this film at least keeps up that tradition, and doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb like the prequels do. The production design, costumes (look out for the scene where Woody Harrelson dons a very familiar costume), vehicles etc. all come across as consistent with what we know and love and call “Star Wars”. It’s a very grey-looking film, and that’s frankly not among my favourite colours, but it does have the bonus of making the film stand out without looking like an odd duck. It’s an interesting look, or at least as interesting as grey can look.

The film also boasts a pretty impressive supporting cast who do manage to make up some of the difference left by the charisma black holes of the romantic leads. There’s at least four by my count, and you could make an argument for five by throwing Chewbacca in as well, he’s always a welcome presence in any “Star Wars” film. The most obvious scene stealers are Donald Glover and a new actress to me, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. When I heard about Glover’s casting, I had lamented that they should’ve gone with (in my view) the more talented thesp and traditionally handsome Michael B. Jordan. I had thus far found Glover to be somewhat mannered, quirky, and nowhere near a Billy Dee Williams-type on the looks or charisma scales (in my completely useless heterosexual male view). Having now seen the film, he’s the absolute right guy for the Lando Calrissian that this film presents us with, and that’s all that matters. Jordan would not have been able to play this Lando at all. I’m not sure I would’ve portrayed the silky-smooth rogue Lando as pansexual, but unlike the much larger and important character of Han Solo, the difference here is a) Not quite as massive, and b) Not anywhere near as important. He’s absolutely terrific in the part as written, and not a million miles removed from what has been previously established by George Lucas and Billy Dee Williams. Lando Calrissian, whether young or old, is still the coolest cat in the “Star Wars” universe. Bar none. Nope, not Han Solo, not Mace Windu. It’s Lando. Also, Glover was a part of one of the funniest “SNL” sketches I’ve seen in years (A parody of Oran ‘Juice’ Jones’ terrible ‘Rain’. You really need to check both clips out one after the other), so the man is cool with me. I’ve got no beef with this Lando. I said earlier that the film was too comical and not often successfully funny. The biggest exception is in the relationship between Glover’s Lando and his female droid L3-37. I don’t recall seeing any of Waller-Bridges’ work before, but she’s hilarious here as a frankly very horny droid, one part of the year’s strangest yet most compelling romantic (?) couples. One thing these recent “Star Wars” films have been getting right are the droids. I’m not a big BB-8 fan, but L3-37 and the hilariously pessimistic K-2SO from “Rogue One” are scene-stealers. Apparently some (i.e. jerky male) fans lamented the character’s supposed feminist bent. I have to confess I never picked up on any of that. Like at all. Even when she tried to liberate some droids, I never took gender/feminism into consideration. I don’t have a stick up my arse or anti-female agenda though, so perhaps that’s why I didn’t pick up on this imaginary nonsense. Also in fine form is Paul Bettany, perfectly cast as a human villain, however he’s one of the main victims of the film’s episodic structure, leaving the picture for too-long stretches. He basically gets two scenes and steals both of them effortlessly. He was born to play a “Star Wars” villain, I just wish it were in a better “Star Wars” film. Woody Harrelson is as usual, rock-solid. I was glad to see he and Bettany in something like this because I at least knew they’d hold up their end of things excellently, and to that end I was not disappointed. The Clint Howard cameo was one of the best bits of comedy, I must say.

In addition to the Lando portion of the film, I thought it was a really cool idea to have Han Solo go off to fight in a war, representing The Galactic Empire, no less. It’s just that I think that could’ve been enough to base an entire film off, not just be one brief segment in a film too full of brief segments. Still, it was an interesting surprise for me and the segment is interestingly shot like WWII footage. One thing I did like about most of the characters and the worldview shown here is that everyone and everything is a bit roguish, corrupt or at least potentially corruptible. There’s no Luke Skywalkers shown floating around here, and for a film supposedly about Han Solo, the rather opportunistic or shady vibe of everyone/everything here makes sense.

Objectively a more than passable, if highly episodic and disjointed film. However, on a subjective level, this is bootleg “Star Wars” that fails due to casting, screenwriting, and an inconsistent comedic approach. Despite some fine qualities and a good look, this feels ‘off’ and not quite right. I almost feel like it should never have seen the light of day and they should’ve just made a “Lando” spin-off instead. However, then you’d miss out on the good supporting cast and fun little moments like the funny ‘Join the Empire’ propaganda heard over a PA at one point. That was choice. The film is just OK.

Rating: B-