Solo: A Star Wars Story

2018 • 134 minutes

About this movie

Buckle up for the ride of your life aboard the Millennium Falcon! Through a series of daring escapades, Han Solo befriends his mighty future copilot Chewbacca, forging a bond that will alter the fate of a galaxy in an epic action adventure directed by Ron Howard and written by Jonathan & Lawrence Kasdan.

Ratings and reviews

Disney has a history of taking old stories and rewriting them. This has proved successful for them when taking old fairy tales, updating them, and editing them to be more appealing to children. However, when they decided to scrap the Star Wars EU, they put themselves at a huge disadvantage. Disney has taken comparatively recent stories (as opposed to the fairy tales they used to rely on) which are well loved and well known among the fan base they are trying to appeal to and decided to rewrite them. What they need to do in order to be successful as this is write a better story than the ones they are replacing. Solo has utterly failed to do that. The original Solo back story was far superior and the move has suffered for having to try and live up to it. Had nobody ever heard of Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, or Chewbacca this movie may have been better received. As a replacement to the wonderful and rich back stories we already had for these characters, this film feels like a lackluster ham-fisted cash grab intended to nod to a few bits of nostalgic sentiment without putting any true effort into story telling. From a technical perspective, the repeated production interruptions and director changes are apparent and the script rewrites left the continuity out of rhythm. The comedic relief feels preachy instead of humorous. There is deeply expressed sentiment that happens on the screen but was never developed so the viewer is unable to share in the loss which makes it feel hollow and forced. Ultimately, there is a reason this is the only SW movie to fail at the box office.

2 ½ stars. If Lord & Miller would've been allowed to finish, this would've been a hilarious movie. Trying to take the jokes they set up (L337 & Lando, for instance) & play them seriously, so as not to offend a left-leaning segment of the audience falls flat, as the comedy comes through anyhow. It's a perfectly watchable film, but the music is horrible. I was astounded at just how pedestrian it is. Imagine JW's original themes being mangled and inserted inappropriately.

My biggest issue is the movie really adds nothing to the Star Wars story arc. Do not watch this film and you are not losing anything. Next problem some of what you seen did not make good Science Fiction or Fantasy for that matter. Small spoiler the giant beast near a black hole how does this thing survive what does it eat. There were other issues too like at the end à hint to squel... sorry I hope it doesn't happen. Disney just keeps cranking the out and personally I am tired of these films