Solo: A Star Wars Story - Movie Review

Ron Howard has directed some decent films in his time. He has come a long way from little Opie Taylor on the Andy Griffith show. But I think he needs to steer clear of science fiction. Particularly franchises that are beloved by fans. I was sorely disappointed with The Dark Tower last year. Howard follows that mediocre film with Solo: A Star Wars Story. Usually fan films like Star Wars enjoy a nice "fanboy" bump when they are first released. Apparently, I am not alone in my disappointment.

Solo: A Star Wars Story provides us with the backstory of one of the franchise's most beloved characters, Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich). We get a glimpse into the distant past, as a young Solo is attempting to steal his freedom along with the love of his life, Qi'ra (Emilia mother-of-dragons Clarke). We get a rapid-fire introduction to a blossoming romance, a sloppy separation and an awkward reunion. In the meantime, Solo signs up for flight training to be the best pilot in the universe, only to wash out and fight muddy wars for delineated purposes. Of course, we don't see any of that. It is summarized in one or two lines of script. We get the history of Solo's introduction to Chewbacca (Joonas Suatamo), a sampling of his renegade tendencies and some full-on cowboy pilot stuff.

Solo: A Star Wars Story felt more like I was reading Solo's diary than watching an action science fiction film. Don't get me wrong, there are some awesome action sequences. But the film is awkward. It lacks balance. There are some really boring set-up scenes that trudge along like passages in a diary. Boring passages. There really isn't much of a narrative arc so much as a set up for the future. There is conflict and resolution, but the goal of the film really feels like a set up for the next film. And an illustration of how facts we know about Han Solo came to be. But overall, the film lacked a heartbeat. It was more a journal entry than a story. Star Wars has always been a series-based franchise. I have no issue with that. But the other films in this franchise generally stand alone for entertainment value. This one falls short of the mark.

One thing that nagged at me a bit with the writing (Jonathan and Lawrence Kasden) was the not-so-subtle need to insert political references into the film. It didn't fit at times, creating unnecessary distraction from the story. Some of the dialogue was wasted on nonsense. That wasted space could have been better deployed developing the characters more. I liked Solo. I didn't care for the actor when watching the trailers, but he did a great job, in part because of the writing. But the other characters were flat. It seemed as if they didn't want to give us any other character to root for. That was disappointing. I expected to connect more with the characters but really didn't care if any of them lived or whether they were all gathered together on Scariff and obliterated with the planet destroyer.

The casting for this film should have yielded a better result. The one actor I was least familiar with, I liked the best. Ehrenreich did a solid job of holding his character together. He had the right moxy for the role. And I went into the film already presuming I wouldn't like him. Clarke is one of my favorite actresses from Game of Thrones. She is amazing. But her character was lopsided. I just wasn't feeling it. Woody Harrelson has been in everything in recent years. I like him. Generally. His character was a bit more complex than Qi'ra, but still predictable. Chewbacca was chewbacca. It worked for me. aarrragghuuhw uughghhhgh Overall, the casting was solid, but the characters were not drawn in a way to capitalize on the talent.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is rated PG-13. To hit its target audience, it needed to be. It is intended to be family science fiction. And there were plenty of children at the screening I went to. The younger children seemed disinterested, but there were more than I expected. The rating is undoubtedly tied to the violence. There is plenty of violence, although it is not necessarily graphic. The violence to machines seems to have been the most extreme. There are some great action scenes, which are intense, but not likely nightmare inducing. There are some decent creatures rendered in the film, but none that seemed overtly scary. The film has a lengthy two hour and fifteen minute run time. I think the film probably needed to be that long, but should have had less dead time and more back story.

After watching Rogue One and coming away satisfied, I had high expectations for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Unfortunately, the latter fell short of the mark. I have been bashing the film a bit, but I actually liked it. My criticism is harsh because this film had a lot of potential. It had a big budget, a strong cast and a massive built-in following. But the writing fell short of the mark. The editing didn't help, either. With a bit more care, this film could have been improved greatly. As it stands, it is a milquetoast entry into a storied franchise. If they do a sequel, which is likely, I hope they spend more time getting it right. Give me some characters I can engage. 7/10.

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