Anyone? No? Well, I didn't ask for this either. But with the latest Disney/Lucasfilm pact, something like this was inevitable, because money. The beautiful thing about Han Solo is that his backstory is already sprinkled in throughout the series--writing a prequel just for him practically writes itself. And yet, that's the disconcerting problem--Han worked in the originals because he was a mysterious rogue with a shady past, with only shadows of it popping up as occasional story problems. I feared that revealing the source of his shadowy past would take away from the enigmatic depth, because less really is more in this case.
Thus, I walked into Solo: A Star Wars Story cynically, expecting a blue milk run through all the checkboxes that aligned with the original movies (the fact that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were bumped off the director's chair in favor of Ron Howard did little to alleviate my concerns). Even though the film opens with a fast and furious speeder chase, I just leaned back and expected a dry, colorless, lifeless hack job to sink into my ears and eyes.
I walked out rather satisfied. What happened? Same things that makes any movie perfectly watchable--a magic combination of storytelling and cinematic experience. Howard managed to bring that certain something to the table that made Willow so charming back in the day--an adventurous spirit, wrapped around a romp of a plot with charming characters, cute comedy, eye-popping action, and marvelous special effects.
Sure, you do get to see certain checkboxes marked off, such as how Han met Chewbacca, hustles and bustles with Lando Calrissian, beauty shots of the Millennium Falcon (and its eventual degradation into a hunk of junk--man, that was fast), and the historic "Kessel Run" in a miraculous 12 Parsecs! Fortunately, these don't really lift away the air of mystery from Solo's character--if anything, they turn his moments in the originals into throwbacks. Prequels often run the risk of making universes smaller, but Solo manages to expand the Star Wars cinematic realms in exciting ways--this is a film that dives deeper into the seedy webs of crime syndicates, and promises that there's a lot more fertile ground to cover. This is easily the closest a film has come to becoming a Shadows of the Empire adaptation. The only bad thing Solo does as a prequel is that it brings back a Prequel Trilogy character just for the hell of it--even I'm pulling the last of my hair out wondering "how is this character still alive?!!"
The actual story behind Han Solo is a simple one: he was dude (Alden Ehrenreich) on Corellia who tried to worm his way out. When he failed to get his girlfriend (Emilia Clarke) off the planet, he joined the Empire. Then he got kicked out of the academy. He went to war anyway (I dunno, I wish there was a little more shown about these Imperial years), hooked up with some roughnecks (headed by Woody Harrelson, playing a character who feels lifted out of a Sergio Leone western), and took a job to rob a train (I'm sensing a pattern...). When that goes to hell, he has to take another job to make up for things and save his hide, which prompts the madcap chase to rip off the Kessel spice mines. The whole time, Solo plays the odds not only for his freedom, but for the girl he left behind.
There are predictable aspects to this plot (especially anything that was already revealed in the original movies). It's also hard to feel tension for these characters when you know the leads have to survive. What helps, however, is that the story is still firmly established on characterization that feels fresh. Alden Ehrenreich embodies Han Solo with surprising nuance--all the fun qualities Harrison Ford initially brought to the table carries over without feeling like a mere copycat. Other performances are quite solid, and they're all unified with a fairly decent script. I feel the opening act is the weakest, largely because so much of the character is "told" to us and not shown. After the big train heist scene, the film settles into a comfortable pace and pattern that's easily digestible.
Like the other modern Star Wars films, this looks really sharp and slick. Most of the film looks a little too dark for my liking, but the cinematography is still really nice most of the time. No expense spared on any of the sets, props, costumes, or special effects. Music is often quite pleasing and interesting. It all looks and sounds so money.
But that may be the film's downfall: money. Fans might not be fooled or enticed enough to see past the film's business prerogative. But what studio film isn't made to make money, especially with the Star Wars brand? Solo could have been much worse--I'm personally pleased that it managed to capture the right spirit, even if it took a little time to find it. Casual viewers might shrug it off--as a fan, I've got nothing but good feelings about this.
3.5/5
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