Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Paul Bettany, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Donald Glover, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Solo: A Star Wars Story is competently made, occasionally engaging, and passably entertaining, but not rousing enough to lift it into the upper stratosphere of Star Wars lore. Like Rogue One or Episodes I and II of the series, do we really need to know this backstory? Can't we have the original films maintain their sense of awe and wonder without all of the pieces filled in on blatant cash-in attempts? What made Han Solo so compelling is that he is a cipher; a self-proclaimed neutral smuggler looking out for number one who nonetheless does what's right when the chips are down. The Han Solo of this film is the same way, but he is younger and a tad less worn down by life, so it doesn't tell us what we don't already know.
Han (Ehrenreich) grows up amidst a dusty, grimy planet hustling to survive. He and his girlfriend Qi'Ra (Clarke) dream of escaping so Han can pursue his dream of being a pilot. Han escapes while Qi'Ra is captured, so after a few years of middling around and joining the Empirical Army, he deserts to join a duo of smugglers (Harrelson and Newton) on a dangerous job which could result in bad things happening to them if they don't deliver the goods.
Their mission is to steal a lot of some rare, volatile element (its name escapes me), but they fail and now must convince their boss Dryden (Bettany) to give them one more chance to make it right. Dryden agrees and allows the now resurfaced Qi'Ra to join the smugglers on their next job, which will require a really fast spaceship. This is where Lando Calrissian (Glover) comes in. For those who recall The Empire Strikes Back, Lando is the man Han won the Millenium Falcon from in a card game. The game is akin to intergalactic poker I assume, but with different rules and hands. It would have been more cinematic to have them just play actual poker. Who's to say the game wasn't invented a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away?
Glover hits all of the smoothie notes Billy Dee Williams played in Empire, but it isn't a mere imitation. There is a hint of mischief behind the million-dollar smile and backslapping, plus a soft spot in his heart for his temperamental female droid co-pilot L3 (Waller-Bridge). Ehrenreich doesn't give us a Harrison Ford impersonation, which makes sense since this is a younger, less coarse version of the Solo we knew in the original series, but while he sports a sneaky grin and has the cockiness down to a tee, he doesn't quite have the charisma to carry the day. Harrelson has settled into the middle age mentor role, and his character doesn't provide many surprises. Usually the guy who says don't trust anyone isn't speaking in hypotheticals.
Ron Howard was brought aboard to direct after the studio had a falling out with original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (who retained executive producer credit). I can understand Howard's desire to direct what was expected to be a built-in hit, since he hasn't a true box office winner in quite some time. The direction is respectable and things move along okay, but Howard's better movies involve more personal stories instead of bloated blockbusters. The fact that Solo's underwhelming opening weekend gross suggests Star Wars fatigue, or after Rogue One and The Last Jedi, moviegoers may be a bit gun shy about yet another Star Wars story.
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