Solo

Movie Review #2644

SOLO. Another Star Wars story following Rogue One from 2016.

This one focuses on a young Han Solo and amongst other things explains how Han met Chewbacca, how Han met Lando and how Han acquired the Millennium Falcon. It also shows how he did the Kessel run in 12 parsecs, a little brag from him in the original StarWars movie.

As per my review of The Last Jedi, StarWars is a simple story, told well and executed accordingly: farm boy races off to rescue a princess and becomes the hero of the rebellion. It's a modern day fairy tale with a sci-fi base and a budget to make it one of the most popular movies of all time. Like most of the sequels, this one complicates things and moves further away from the original simple format.

We're not sure who is betraying who and sometimes Han is portrayed as somewhat of a smart*ss. Harrison Ford's Han Solo was certainly a scoundrel but never a smart*ss and I wonder whether the actor concerned Alden Ehrenreich might have done better to rather than portray a young Han Solo is to have portrayed a young Harrison Ford.

That said, it's the standard StarWars fare maybe with fewer comedic touches and odd creatures than usual but with the same bravado and exploitation of the StarWars universe. We also see an old 'friend' from one of the other sequels showing up towards the end which introduces more questions that will undoubtedly be addressed in future iterations. Woody Harrelson is excellent as Han's scoundrel mentor Beckett however not really any other performances of note.

Overall, did enjoy but not as much as Rogue One, 7/10