A review of “Solo: A Star Wars Story”

This is the 10th “Star Wars” movie, the second in the anthology, and the first origin story. It arrives only half a year after “The Last Jedi” – clearly Disney, as the new owners of the franchise, are seeking to exploit the potential of the box office – and after a troubled production (notably a change of director to Ron Howard).

It’s an enjoyable romp with almost an excess of action but, for me, it lacks originality and surprise. We know that Han Solo is going to meet the wookie Chewbacca, that he is going to win the Millennium Falcon from the rogue Lando Calrissian, and even that he is going to do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. We have lots of familiar scenes, such as another cantina-type sequence, but – and this was the real magic of the saga – there is no Force, no Jedi, and (virtually) no lightsabres.

What is new are the actors playing the young Han and the young Lando and Alden Ehrenreich is suitably charming and swaggering in the eponymous role while Donald Glover is cool as the original owner of the Falcon. Interestingly, most of the other leading roles are taken by British actors: Paul Bettany as the chief baddie Dryden Vos, Emilia Clarke as the mysterious Qi’ra, an underused Thandie Newton, and unrecognisable Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Many see the “Star Wars” story as a space western but this episode is also a kind of inclusive rom-com with Han fancying Qi’ra, Han bromancing Chewbacca, and Lando getting emotional over a droid called L3-37. So something for everyone then, but not quite enough for me.


 




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