Trailer Talk: Solo: A Star Wars Story

Normally, I do Trailer Talks on Fridays only, saving up all the trailers that I can during the week prior, and talk about them at once, but every now and then, I’ll do one for a single movie if it’s a big one. And I think it goes without saying that any Star Wars trailer will count as a big one.

So, we just got the new (and I’m presuming final) trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Take a look here:

It makes sense that given our proximity to the release date, this trailer will give us more meat in terms of what to expect storywise. It’s also a generally well put together trailer, which is to be expected.

The production issues for this film have been well documented and written about so much building up to this ever since the announcement that the original directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller were off the project, and Ron Howard was brought in to complete. From the bits and pieces of info that have been released, it seems like the final product will very much be Ron Howard’s movie. While that’s disappointing as a fan of Lord and Miller, it’s nothing against Howard, who has done great work before.

However, I’m still not totally sold on this. It looks like it could be a good time, but not much more than that. It’s not a bad thing to just want to be fun, but I can’t help but feel like it’s going to be another Rogue One situation where the film goes out of its way to answer questions about the original films that I was never remotely interested in learning about, while also throwing fan service at me. I didn’t like Rogue One, and my thoughts on it has only grown more negative over time, and I’m seeing things in this that remind me of that.

For example, just like Rogue One, we’re doing another movie about a group of people having to work together to fulfill a mission/heist. The stakes might be lower than Rogue One, but it’s the same basic story skeleton. We even have another aggressive, but snarky droid in L3-37. Though, it is voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, so that’s pretty neat, I guess.

I feel bad for Alden Ehrenreich. We’re asking the impossible from him, and I know he’s talented, but he’s also not Harrison Ford. I can only hope he brings in enough of himself and his own idiosyncrasies to make it feel wholly his own, and less of an imitation. Of course, like everyone else, I’m mostly excited about Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, well…that and Bradford Young’s cinematography, which looks aces, by the way. And I suppose having lots of Chewie action won’t hurt either.

I’m not one of those deep-diving types with theses things, if you are, go nuts. That’s all I pretty much have to say about Solo at this point. It’s by no means one of my most anticipated films this year, but I do hope it’s good.

Have any thoughts on the trailer, good or bad? Sound off in the comments below!