May 24, 2018
Directed by: Ron Howard
Screenplay by: Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan
Cast:
Film Series: Star Wars Anthology Series
Music Composed By: John Williams, John Powell
Production Company: Lucasfilm, Disney Pictures
During an adventure into the criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his future copilot Chewbacca and encounters Lando Calrissian years before joining the Rebellion.
Han Solo is a young Corellian man seeking a way off the planet and from under the thumb of Lady Proxima (voiced by actress Linda Hunt), leader of the White Worms gang, who is after a hyperfuel known as coaxium. After getting his hands on some coaxium, he meets up with his girlfriend, Qi'ra and they try to escape. He bribes an Imperial officer with it and makes it through the gate, but Qi'ra doesn’t. Han promises to find a way to get her out. He enlists to become a pilot for the Empire (here we find out how he got his last name, Solo), but never one to listen to orders, he is kicked out of the academy for insubordination and ends up an Imperial infantryman, fighting in a war. After his troop is killed, he joins up with three thieves pretending to be infantrymen: Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), his girlfriend Val (Thandie Newton), and the alien, Rio Durant (Jon Favreau). The three set out to rob an Imperial train for coaxium. Instead, they feed him to a beast, which happens to be none other than Chewbacca!
Han Solo is a young Corellian man seeking a way off the planet and from under the thumb of Lady Proxima (voiced by actress Linda Hunt), leader of the White Worms gang, who is after a hyperfuel known as coaxium. After getting his hands on some coaxium, he meets up with his girlfriend, Qi'ra and they try to escape. He bribes an Imperial officer with it and makes it through the gate, but Qi'ra doesn’t. Han promises to find a way to get her out. He enlists to become a pilot for the Empire (here we find out how he got his last name, Solo), but never one to listen to orders, he is kicked out of the academy for insubordination and ends up an Imperial infantryman, fighting in a war. After his troop is killed, he joins up with three thieves pretending to be infantrymen: Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), his girlfriend Val (Thandie Newton), and the alien, Rio Durant (Jon Favreau). The three set out to rob an Imperial train for coaxium. Instead, they feed him to a beast, which happens to be none other than Chewbacca!
This is the first Star Wars film (other than the Ewoks TV films from the 80s) where the robots, C3PO and R2D2 don’t appear, not even for a second or two, though Anthology Daniels does play a part in the film. Nor Leia or Luke. But again, this is about Han’s past before they met him and Chewie (though we did see some of Chewie’s past on his home planet in Episode 3, Attack of the Clones).
Surprisingly, the movie wasn’t as bad as I feared. Actor Alden Ehrenreich wouldn’t have been my first choice to play Han, a part Harrison Ford did well and most memorably, it was obvious that the acting coach brought in helped and he did a better job than anyone would have thought. Chewie was done well, even though not played by Peter Mayhew this time around. But Chewie, younger than he was in Star Wars: A New Hope, actor Joonas Suotamo did the mannerisms and personality of Chewie right. Actor Danny Glover made a great Lando Calrissian. Many of the things Han mentions to Luke or Leia, happen in this film like how he won the Millennium Falcon from Lando to how he did the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs.
Redoing the whole film after taking over the reins from the previously fired directors, and a new script written, director Ron Howard did better than many could have. Between him, Lawrence Kasdan (wrote the screenplay for Empire Strikes Back—still the best of the Star Wars films) and his son rewriting the new script, like I said in the beginning, the film was better than I’d expected. Sadly, coming not long after the badly done Star Wars: The Last Jedi, maybe even Star Wars fatigue with so much Star Wars, it may not get much of a chance.
I gave Solo: A Star Wars Story 4 “May the Force Be With You” sheep.
Pamela K. Kinney
Glad to see you enjoyed. Ever since the first trailer came out I've wanted to see Solo. I loved Harrison Ford as Solo and well his character is just to much fun, so I hope I enjoy it. Thank's for the review on the movie.
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