Star Wars is one of my favorite franchises ever. The combination of science fiction and fantasy help create an amazing universe with some of the coolest technology ever put to film. Add iconic characters, great stories, and fascinating lore into the mix, and you have one of the best film series of all time. So why was I not that excited for Solo: A Star Wars Story? Well, it's because of a few reasons. The big reason was all of the behind the scenes trouble the film had. It went through a number of directors and a number of reshoots, and that fact worried me that the movie would end up messy beyond salvaging. Besides that, the concept of this movie felt unnecessary. It's another prequel story of a character previously established and developed in the original trilogy. Adding a prequel to his story feels pointless and inconsequential because we all know he will live past it. Plus, once the trailer came out, it didn't look all that exciting. Nothing grabbed at me and gave me the incentive to watch it opening weekend, which apparently was a feeling that was shared by many people because it bombed over the weekend. It's a shame, because after watching it, I gotta say that it's not bad. It's not great by any means, but I enjoyed it well enough.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is the prequel story of Han Solo. In this movie, he finds himself in the middle of a criminal plan involving lots of hyperfuel. The film chronicles how he meets Chewbacca, how he meets Lando, how he gets the Millenium Falcon, and how he becomes the greatest outlaw of the galaxy.
As a story, it's pretty generic. It's a typical "guy caught in the middle of something bigger than him" story you've heard multiple times over. The only real difference hear is that it's set in the Star Wars universe. This film doesn't offer anything that interesting or compelling in terms of storytelling, despite a few elements that tie into the original trilogy. And all the plot twists that they try to pull off are painfully forgettable. Overall, I thought the plot to be bland.
In fact, I found most of the technical aspects to be pretty bland. The cinematography in particular felt underwhelming. The shots that were in the movie all felt dull with not much in terms of color and lighting to keep the pictures interesting or visually stimulating. The special effects I thought were fine. It's typical modern day Star Wars CGI and it works well enough. The editing was fine sometimes but awful other times. There were moments where cuts were made in parts that felt so unnecessary that they were distracting. The action scenes were fun, but ultimately forgettable. There is one segment involving a mining facility that was highly entertaining. The rest of them were not that exciting. The only part of the technical side of filmmaking I found to be phenomenal throughout was the score. The Star Wars franchise has had consistently amazing music, and Solo is no exception. In fact, I was genuinely surprised that John Williams was not the composer for this movie. John Powell, composer of the How to Train your Dragon and the Bourne franchises, did a great job emulating the Star Wars feel through the music. The score was the only thing that truly stuck out as amazing.
As for the acting and characters, like most of the rest of the movie, they're fine, but bland overall. Alden Ehrenreich was a decent young Han Solo, although it was hard picturing him growing into the Han Solo we know and love today. There was something about his delivery and mannerisms that made it hard to see him as Han Solo. Emilia Clarke did a fine job playing the main love interest, but she didn't do anything that made her stand out. Woody Harrelson was playing an emotionally flat variation of previous characters he portrayed, like Willoughby in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri and Carson Wells in No Country For Old Men. The only actor that had a true presense onscreen was Donald Glover as Lando, but there were moments where he got somewhat annoying because he seemed to try a little to hard to be like the original character. The only character that I loved throughout the entire movie was Chewbacca, because he's Chewbacca. It was cool to see the origins of him and how he met up with Han Solo. It lead to a great emotional core in his story, albeit short lived, and some great interactions with Han. Han Solo and Chewbacca interacting with each other was charming, endearing, and showed off how strong the chemistry is between the two. It lead to some of the best scenes and character moments of the entire film.
Overall, I thought the movie was decent. It wasn't great, it wasn't terrible, it was decent. There is nothing particularly bad about about the movie, but there isn't anything particularly great about the movie either. Most everything the movie has to offer is executed well enough, but not in a way that's feels fresh or exciting. This is certainly the most pointless Star Wars film since The Phantom Menace, although Solo: A Star Wars Story is far better executed than that movie. My experience with this movie is fairly positive, so in that case, I'd say check it out if you haven't gotten the chance. I'm not going to say this will blow you away, but I found the film to be relatively enjoyable. Solo: A Star Wars Story was a fine film to add to the ever-growing Star Wars universe, even if it doesn't add much depth or story to the legacy as a whole.
Final Score: 6/10 (Decent)
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