The Star Wars franchise has been around for over 40 years and has just hit its tenth live-action film. The series has celebrated this milestone with an origin story of one of its most iconic characters: Han Solo. Solo follows a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) as he begins his career as a famous criminal and smuggler. The story follows him as he forces his way into a crew of thieves and takes on a job that offers him a chance to join the ranks of the truly great. While previous installments have been narratively heavy, this film tried to keep the story light and fun and for the most part it worked very well. The tone of this film was completely different from previous films and it served it well to move away from the heavy tone of the last two installments.
Now for the cast. Ehrenreich does his best to emulate the suaveness of Han Solo, but he definitely falls just a little bit short. He plays the character with the charm that people envision, but he feels a little one-dimensional and doesn’t manage the range that Ford brought to the character. Deserving of shout-outs are Donald Glover as Lando, who perfectly matches the performance given by Billy Dee Williams in the original trilogy. He is easily the highlight of the movie. Another shout-out goes to Woody Harrelson, who acts perfectly as Han’s mentor and gives credence to his origin story. I also feel that Emilia Clarke played her role very well, but I don’t think that her acting ability gave more depth to the character and I think that fleshing the character out more would have been beneficial.
Despite a rocky production, this film turned out better than it should have, thanks in part to Ron Howard and a consistent cast.
Not the best entry in the franchise, but it was definitely a lot of fun, so I give this one…
3.5 out of 5
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