The Corellian scoundrel has finally got his own backstory, but is it a story worth telling or should it have been left deep inside the spice mines of Kessel?
These days I have no high expectations with the Star Wars films, hey I'm just being honest. The first trilogy I have come to realise, had some sort of kismetical alignment, where ideas, actors, direction and production values came majestically together to create a grand space-opera, that may never be equalled ever again. With this in mind, there will be no more comparisons to the older siblings, new films will be squarely judged on their own merit...or lack of.
Solo: A Star Wars Story as an idea, was never going to be a hard sell, but its execution was definitely going to be a challenge. The personal legend of Han Solo, as created by George Lucas and further boosted by Harrison Ford's actual portrayal, created an iconic character of cinema, one that will last for all time. Any actor set to play the role, would definitely have a lot of pressure on his shoulders.
I first saw actor Alden Ehrenreich in Beautiful Creatures (2013) and even then he had a charisma. And so I am happy to report that Alden is pretty much the perfect casting for the role of Han and manages to give us a glimpse of who Han Solo will become, but also forges his own portrayal to let us know who Han is now. You will not see an actor give a bad performance of trying to be Harrison Ford, playing Han Solo. Alden makes this his own, with the necessary character distinctions that we can see belong to Solo, not Harrison Ford. Other performances in the main cast are wholly competent too, though Thandie Newton is wasted and Woody Harrelson proves he can be anyone, from any time, in any universe. Personally I really liked Chewbacca, but I had mixed feelings about the robot L3, why? Well it's obvious to see, that the production saw the popularity of Rogue One's humorous robot with an attitude (K2S0) and decided to feature another. But this time around it was hit and miss and you could see some of the 'funny' moments being forcibly injected into the proceedings. For the most part it pays off or is at least tolerable.
"Alden is pretty much the perfect casting for the role of Han and manages to give us a glimpse of who Han Solo will become, but also forges his own portrayal to let us know who Han is now."
Technically Disney and Marvel films are starting to suffer from one reoccurring annoyance - darkness! No not darkness in tone, I mean in lighting. For a lot of Solo, the lighting is dim and grey, yes I understand you want to show how dismal and grey the times are, but give me strength! The viewers still have to still see what is going on with some sort of retina comfort. Along side that, this is the first Star Wars film that doesn't really have moments. I mean yes, we see some of the important canon in Han Solo's life; where this incident takes place, how that situation happened is all laid out for us, but none of it overwhelms you or makes you think 'Oh so that's how it went down!' And that is the film in its entirety, it is a straight down the middle, mediocre-done-well of a movie, but it's still mediocre. I think with better lighting, a few more spaceship battles and something else that I can't quite put my finger on, Solo could have been a much better movie.
Solo: A Star Wars Story Is Out Now.
Solo: A Star Wars Story Is Out Now.
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