Solo: A Star Wars Story

(Ron Howard/2018/USA)

The second stand alone film in the now Disney owned Star Wars Universe seems like a winner on paper – focusing on the back story of one of the franchises favourite characters whose edgy roguishness should allow far more scope and depth of exploration in terms of motivations and morals. There’s potential for some light and humour in the early days of Han Solo to counter the darkness and strife in the backgrounds of other major figures like Luke and Leia. Given that the first effort, Rogue One, very much stepped away from the typical framework of a Star Wars film and was more or less a war movie I was expecting something special with the Solo flick but it was not to be. The film reverts to well worn cinematic paths and becomes a lesson in box ticking for fans more than anything else. How did he get his name – check, how did he meet Chewbacca – check, how did he make the Kessel run in 12 parsecs – check (albeit an ironically long and convoluted check). It lacks pizzazz and is trapped in its own formula as not much unexpected happens, it’s an action adventure romp but it fails to be imaginative within the confines of that framework. Maybe it’s due to the production problems that saw the original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller fired and replaced by Ron Howard, who knows?

There are some good action sequences and visually it’s on point if a little derivative; ranging from the Bladerunner-esque early scenes on Corellia through the Von Ryan’s Express heist scene to yet another desert planet in the final sequence. I can’t fault the acting, Enhrich whilst not wholly embodying Harrison Ford’s Solo in looks carries off the foolish bravado and reckless daring ego stuff. Glover is perfect as a young Lando Calrissian. Outside of my own expectations of what the film would be being let down the film fails to light any fires for a number of other reasons too though; it’s over long and some of the plot lines are just too much, the Kessel run scene is exhausting for example. Just get on with it; he finished a journey really fast that’s all we need to see. Given the rumours that Miller and Lord were swerving the film towards a comedy caper routine which would have been a completely different turn for a Star Wars flick and based on the formulaic final result I think the biggest mistake here is the studio not having the kahunas to take a Han Solo gamble and let them go for it.

(2/5)