Well, at least it’s better than Rogue One.
It becomes far more clear that these spin-off films were not in fact avenues to let filmmakers with distinct voices play in the Star Wars playground as it was initially sold to us. If anything, it’s the complete opposite, getting industry vets with workmanlike qualities to deliver mostly safe and unchallenging films that revolve around tying story threads back to the original trilogy in largely inconsequential ways. Meanwhile, you have Episode VIII actually dealing with a full blown auteur (and for the record, in this house, we love The Last Jedi). I don’t know what the big thought process behind some of these decisions are, but I guess that’s none of my business.
The follow up “Star Wars Story” to Rogue One is Solo, written by father-son duo Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan and directed by Ron Howard, which follows our titular scoundrel, played by Alden Ehrenreich, who goes on an adventure through the galaxy with a group of smugglers, and meeting folks like Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), and Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) along the way.
This is one of those movies where I’m not quite sure what angle I should look at it. As disposable popcorn entertainment, it’s perfectly serviceable. It isn’t expecting you to think too hard about the characters or the things that are happening, it’s full of competently crafted action setpieces, it keeps the tone light, and has more than enough fan service to go around. I admit that as inconsistent as it was, even I was sometimes charmed by the characters and thrilled by the action sequences. If that’s literally all you want, by all means have your fun.
However, the movie doesn’t really earn or justify this kind of thoughtless escapism, especially for this specific character. Not only is it because the happenstance of him getting sucked into the story of the original Star Wars gave him the room to make such a lasting impression that informs who he is as a character without needless backstory, it’s also because it’s hard to put your headspace into fun mode when you’re watching a character who you know will be stabbed by his own son and tossed into a dark, empty void. Maybe it’s just me, but that’s kind of weird.
Plus, the film itself just isn’t very good. Like I said, it has its moments, but for every charming banter between characters there’s a moment where the film stops to acknowledge something that ties into some extraneous detail from the original trilogy. Some are certainly less intrusive than others, but then you get something like Han Solo being given his last name “Solo” because that was something that needed explaining, or even a later moment that involves Lando’s right hand…droid, L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), which opened up a rather bizarre can of worms when it comes to the way the Millennium Falcon gets treated over the years. You’ll understand when you see it.
The film is also has some odd pacing issues, likely due to the almost episodic structuring, where each act doesn’t really flow to one another as much as they do build on top of each other like a game of Jenga, just waiting to fall apart at any given moment. It doesn’t quite go that far; if anything, the final act is where it really hits the ground running, mostly. Plus, the strange structure does make certain character beats feel weirdly rushed or even random, since certain deaths early on don’t seem to leave much of an impact, and the plot leaves the characters too busy to really reflect in a meaningful way.
It’s also kind of disappointing to see a Star Wars movie this bland after the pleasantly pulpy panache of The Last Jedi. Ron Howard is a very good (if inconsistent) director, but he’s not the most distinctive, and the lack of character does make certain moments feel a bit lifeless, and while a Star Wars movie can survive certain bad qualities, “lifeless” is not one of them. Cinematographer, Bradford Young, whose work I generally love, definitely helps create some occasionally striking images, but for a good chunk of the film, his style of soft, hazy, underexposed photography doesn’t mesh well with the drab, dimly lit sets that dominate most of the film’s first two acts; some parts even make out the faces of the actors because it was too dark. And the composer, John Powell, also does his best to bring some much needed energy here, but aside from one genuinely inspired and haunting track that plays whenever the mysterious Enfys Nest (Erin Kellyman) appears on screen, it mostly becomes the same John Williams mimicry we’ve heard before, and it’s mixed in a way where it becomes a bit hard to hear at a lot of points.
The performances are fine. Alden Ehrenreich is given the thankless job of having to pretend to be Harrison Ford in his prime, and while it is a bit of a stretch to believe he is Han Solo, he is charming enough just as a screen presence to make it work. He just has the most adorable smile. Donald Glover as Lando is basically deigned to be the scene stealer of the entire picture, and for the most part, it works. Though, he seems to change whether he’s doing a full on vocal impression of Billy Dee Williams from scene to scene, but it’s small enough to be forgivable. Paul Bettany is clearly having the most fun as the crime syndicate leader, Dryden Vos, milking all two scenes of his for all their worth. If anyone is the weak link, it’s probably Emilia Clarke as Qi’ra, Han’s old flame who now works with Vos. It’s not that she’s bad, but she doesn’t leave much of an impression aside from being “generically nice,” and she doesn’t convey the kind of questionable, but seemingly trust worthy femme fatale type character she probably came across on paper.
I also want to briefly touch on something that I unfortunately can’t give away because it’s a spoiler. There’s a lot of fan service, that’s expected, it annoyed me in Rogue One, and it annoyed me here a bunch of times too, but whatever, I can deal with it. However, there is one cameo in this movie (don’t worry, I won’t give it away) that is so distracting, so baffling, so pointless that it might be one of the worst attempts at this that I have ever seen. Sure, it can be explained by material outside of the film, but I honestly don’t care about that. I legitimately can’t stop thinking about it. Again, you’ll know when you see it.
So, Solo: A Star Wars Story is sort of fine, I guess, depending on how forgiving you can be on certain elements. I didn’t have a bad time for the most part, especially whenever it leaned on being a western inspired romp, and I suppose it’s a harmless enough distraction. Solo doesn’t bother with the pretense that it’s anything other than a product by a massive corporation aiming to set up its own franchise (yes, they do sequel bait here) that doesn’t offer anything new or interesting to add to the characters that we’ve all grown up loving. So, I’m not acting surprised when I see nothing but pure, empty, unadulterated nostalgia bait. It’s just a messy concoction from the get-go, that does bring some charm and humor here and there, but it all adds up to nothing. Perhaps, it’s somewhat appropriate that the film based on Han Solo would be as rough around the edges as the character itself, but would that it were so simple.