The film is basically a western set in the Star Wars universe. You have Han Solo (Ehrenreich) working with a bunch of other smugglers to pull off a big score to pay off a powerful gangster named Dryden (Paul Bettany) and possibly even get a lot of money in the process. When one of the jobs to get a hold of a refined and powerful fuel source goes south, Han, his friend Chewie and his associate Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) manage to convince Dryden to let them pull off a risky heist on a mining planet of Kessel to get the fuel source in an unrefined form but to later bring it to him refined to pay him off. Joining them on this dangerous mission is Han’s old flame Qu’ra (pronounced Kira and played by Emilia Clarke) and Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) in an adventure that fills in what the Kessel run was about when Han referred to it in Episode IV.
Despite all the worrying and carrying on about whether or not Alden Nichire could pull off the character that Harrison Ford made iconic, at the end of the day, I thought he did an OK job. He may not look or behave exactly like Ford or even really give off the natural charm Ford exuded in the original trilogy but at least he made me forget I was looking at an actor trying to portray Han Solo and he seemed to make the character his own while still keeping the roguish, over confident, in-over-his-head character that Han is known as. It’s also great to see how his friendship with Chewie came about. The way they were introduced to each other felt appropriate to me and seeing them go through various challenges together as the film progresses (especially when the Kessel run comes about) gives a bit more weight to how they really are best buddies in the original trilogy.
Another returning character form the original trilogy is Lando portrayed by Donald Glover and I thought he did fine as well even if he can’t hold a candle to Billy Dee Williams. Although I don’t where the whole thing about him being pansexual works into his character or into the story but whatever. And the movie implies that he is attracted to his droid co-pilot L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) …are they taking the robosexual joke from Futurama and applying it to Star Wars? Weird.
The supporting cast consisting of Emilia Clarke, Paul Bettany and others all did a decent job with what they are given but I do have to admit that I didn’t really think Bettany’s Dryden was all that threatening and was a rather lackluster bad guy Also, Clarke was pretty bland as Qu'ra and doesn't have any real chemistry with Ehrenreich's Solo. But for me, of all the supporting cast, Woody Harrelson is the stand out among them all. He was the most memorable of the bunch and he actually reminded me of his character Tallahassee from 2009’s Zombieland to a certain extent. I consider that a good thing.
I do have to say, however, that L3-37 got on my nerves with her Droid rights thing and her “fight against the system!” or “hack the planet!” mentality. Apart from being essentially a walking, talking navigational computer for the Falcon and assisting with the heist she didn’t really feel all that essential otherwise. I just don’t like that droid at all.
The Kessel Run (the achievement mentioned by Han in Episode IV in regards to how fast the Falcon is) is the main action sequence of the film and it was fun to see it happen especially when they get trapped in some sort of space cloud and Han has to use his piloting skills and smarts to pull it off. The sequence itself and other action scenes were fun to watch even if they got a bit too frenetic with the camera work and editing at times. Visually, the film does and admirable job getting the look and feel of Star Wars and I’m glad to see that the behind-the-scenes troubles don’t really show up in the final cut.
The story about gangsters, knowing when to do the right thing or not and understanding the fact that you can never trust anyone in the gangster lifestyle may be a bit formulaic and fairly predictable to even the most unseasoned film watchers but at least it was executed fairly competently. And as far as an origin story of Han Solo goes, it was OK even if it wasn't really needed. I (as well as plenty of others) was never really asking for a Han Solo origin story but at the very least I didn't groan through it. All I'm saying is as far as a lot of the origin stories with popular characters that Hollywood had tried to do over the years, I maintain that it could have been worse.
Apart from L3-37, having too much fan service here and there and a cameo from a certain character that even made me confused as to why he was even in the movie in the first place, I had a pretty good time with Solo. It was a perfectly serviceable summer movie that I wouldn’t mind watching again…that is if someone else owned it and it happened to be playing in their house while I was there. I don't even really care if this events in this one conflict with established Star Wars lore since Solo at least gave me entertainment when The Last Jedi couldn't even do that.
I know I am pretty much damning this movie with some faint praise but the more I think about it all it really was is a piece of entertainment that may be fun to watch a couple of times but one you would never seriously come back to over and over. That kind of reaction is not something you would associate with a franchise like Star Wars but that is where we are at now.
