Solo: A Star Wars Story is the second spin-off of the saga from Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Pictures, following 2016’s Rogue One. The film stars Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as his love interest Qi’ra, Woody Harrelson as the space pirate Tobias Beckett, Donald Glover (Atlanta) as young Lando Calrissian, Joonas Suotamo reprising his The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi role as Chewbacca, and Paul Bettany (Avengers: Infinity War) as criminal overlord Dryden Vos. The ensemble cast also features Thandie Newton (Westworld), Jon Favreau and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag).
Much has been made of the turbulent production history of Solo, fathered by executive producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The LEGO Movie, 21 & 22 Jump Street) and later shepherded by director Ron Howard (Willow, Apollo 13). Regardless of this, Solo is an enjoyable if somewhat clumsy adventure that finds its stride as it goes. Ehrenreich and Glover pump up the charm as space scoundrels in their younger days, offering a closer approximation of their stalwart predecessors than one might expect. Harrelson’s Beckett acts as a prototype of sorts for the young smuggler Solo, very similar in function to the archetypal graverobber whom young Indiana Jones faced in the prologue of The Last Crusade, but in a much more expanded fashion.
Speaking of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, this film narrowly avoids feeling like two episodes of The Young Han Solo Chronicles and more of a theatrical excursion thanks in part to the cinematography of Bradford Young (Arrival, Selma) and the script-work of Star Wars vet Lawrence Kasdan alongside his son Jonathan as co-writer. Indeed, the Kasdans’ insistence of adhering to their script served as a topic of contention with the former directors’ loose improvisational style, and led to Howard’s hiring for a more classical approach. The result gives us a somewhat familiar Han Solo through Ehrenreich, who ends up resembling his elder counterpart in action and deed if not in mannerism and style.
Donald Glover fares better in his portrayal of Lando Calrissian, who has yet to climb the galactic social ladder of ruling Cloud City but still knows how to rock a cape. His first mate is Waller-Bridge’s L3-37, a radical droid navigator who is fiery and passionate. Think Angela Davis but as a droid and no afro. L3, like Rogue One’s K-2SO before her, is a stand-out and Glover and Waller-Bridge provide a good deal of screen magnetism until Solo and its eponymous character find their bearings.
The good news is that both the film and Ehrenreich do find their bearings but it takes a while. Chris Pine, for example, faced a tall order in 2009’s Star Trek in re-imagining the iconic role of James Kirk and not making it a bad William Shatner impression. Pine succeeded, but it can be argued that Ehrenreich faces an even taller order with re-imagining Harrison Ford’s legendary smuggler. It takes a good portion of time for the young actor to make the role of Han Solo his own, with much help from the ensemble cast (Suotamo and Clarke as Chewbecca and Qi’ra in particular).
Emilia Clarke as Qi’ra, a fellow Corellian runaway all grown up, is shrouded in mystery as the love interest of young Solo. Now tangled up with Dryden Vos (a serpentine Bettany) and his Crimson Dawn faction, she leads a life of crime and finds herself reunited with Solo in murky circumstances. Qi’ra is meant to be a callback to femmes fatale with nebulous loyalties, a stock character in film noir. She is much more straightforward than that in Solo, and as such, Clarke is underutilized until the last portion of the story. She’s basically a foil for Ehrenreich, someone for him to be charming to. Compared to the push and pull of Ford and Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia, their romance pales but so do the bulk of screen romances.
The action, adventure and sense of derring-do are all well done, worthy of the Star Wars moniker. It has been sometime since I’ve enjoyed a Ron Howard film this much, having personally been underwhelmed by the Robert Langdon movies. I suppose Howard stepped up his game due to his longtime involvement with Lucasfilm, dating back to starring in 1973’s American Graffiti with Ford, directing 1988’s Willow and his continued friendship with George Lucas. Whatever the case may be, Solo is charmingly retro in its pulp leanings and earnest swashbuckling, unconcerned with adrenalizing and turbocharging the set-pieces, and instead maintaining a focus on character and tone, for the most part.
Speaking of character, the Millennium Falcon is brought to life in sterling mint condition by production designer Neil Lamont, another Star Wars vet (Rogue One, Force Awakens). Still under the guardianship of Calrissian, the new Falcon carries the crisp sheen of a car fresh off the assembly line and true to Star Wars form, serves as the setting for the most riveting action scenes. Put through its paces, we see the Falcon come into its own as one of the most vaunted starships in cinema history, even with its original un-augmented silhouette.
The results of Solo’s Frankensteinian birth remain, evident in the flippant energy of Tobias Beckett’s pirate crew and the duo of Lando and L3. It’s a miracle it comes together at all, and a large part of its enjoyment comes from prior knowledge of the Star Wars saga in all its shapes and forms. The apocrypha of Star Wars have long been resigned to print and television, save for 2008’s theatrical release of The Clone Wars. The Expanded Universe was a place for fans to live, relive and extend the adventures of their beloved characters for decades, and now that Disney/Lucasfilm has created this filmic anthology, each installment has to argue for its own existence whereas the other ancillaries (comic books, video games, novels) simply didn’t have to.
As a result, Solo: A Star Wars Story does not and cannot stand alone and to be honest, it was never meant to. There are few moviegoers across the globe that have yet to see A New Hope or the classic trilogy, and the supplemental nature of Solo was designed for the massive fanbase to consume. For better or for worse, this makes Solo a fan film by definition, albeit the most technically proficient and expensive fan film ever made. There is room for growth for the anthology films, true works of art that can tell their own story independent of nostalgic goodwill, as the best of the Expanded Universe once did.
Special mention should go to composer John Powell for adapting the original music, and the maestro himself John Williams who contributed a new theme for Han Solo. Overall, the film is a fun ride with enough panache to keep it from being completely disposable. Howard and his cast and crew do their best to live up the legend, though they prove the limits of delivering a meal unasked for. All that said, audiences will enjoy it, and Star Wars fans will enjoy it even more.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐½
ABOUT LUCASFILM’S SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in Solo: A Star Wars Story, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.
Directed by Ron Howard, the fun-filled galactic heist movie stars Alden Ehrenreich (“Hail, Caesar!,” “Tetro”), Woody Harrelson (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “The Messenger”), Emilia Clarke (“Me Before You,” “Game of Thrones”), Donald Glover (“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “The Martian”), Thandie Newton (“Gringo,” “Crash”), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag,” “Killing Eve”) and Paul Bettany (“Captain America: Civil War,” “Master and Commander”). Joonas Suotamo (“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”) returns to play Chewbacca.
Written by Jonathan Kasdan & Lawrence Kasdan, “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur and Simon Emanuel. Lawrence Kasdan, Jason McGatlin, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are executive producers.
To create the unique look of the film, some of the industry’s top talent has been recruited, including Academy Award® nominee Bradford Young (“Arrival”), director of photography; two-time Academy Award–winning editor Pietro Scalia (“Alien: Covenant”); Dominic Tuohy (“The Mummy”), special effects supervisor; Rob Bredow (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”), visual effects supervisor; and John Powell (“Jason Bourne”), score composed and adapted by.
They are joined by returning Star Wars veteran crew members: Neil Lamont, production designer; Neal Scanlan, special creature effects; David Crossman and Glyn Dillon, costume designers; Jamie Wilkinson, prop master; Lisa Tomblin-Fitzpatrick, hair designer; and Amanda Knight, makeup designer.
The legendary John Williams is credited with the “Han Solo Theme” and original Star Wars music.
“Solo: A Star Wars Story” is set for release in U.S. theaters on May 25, 2018 with a run-time of 143 minutes and is rated PG-13.
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