After much hype and controversy leading up to the second Star Wars anthology release, Solo: a Star Wars Story, the clumsiness of the production and the lack luster story telling are on full display, leading to a very underwhelming viewing.
It’s too bad because the origins world of young Han Solo set up so nicely for future sequels of the young captain and his hairy wookie on their next adventures. A similar liking to The Guardians of the Galaxy but in the Star Wars world, minus a great crew of characters, fabulous soundtrack, charismatic lead that can carry the film and basically anything interesting to bring along for later installments.
Okay. It’s not horrible but most of the time I was thinking ‘get on with it already’ as I checked my watch numerous times throughout the viewing.
There were good things though, Solo and Chewbacca’s chance meeting, Donald Glover lighting up the screen as Lando Calrissian and seeing the beautiful Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones fame, grace the screen as Qi’ra with her charming smile and her lovely eyes I guess . . . which sadly is most of what she did.
I mean for two-thirds of the time she was simply just there as Solo’s love interest sneaking googly eyes toward him and holding back her smiles. She was given no freedom to roam in this flick, which is disappointing because her end performance would have had much more meaning behind it.
I guess it’s kind of tough for a film where the audience already knows the outcome. Spoiler alert: Han Solo survives. As does Chewy and the Millennium Falcon.
So if we know the outcome already the filmmaker has to do their job to make the journey fun with a well-told story and characters that ignite the scene and most importantly keep the audiences’ interest. None of which happened unfortunately.
Alden Ehrenreich was bland and uninspiring which is disappointing because I liked his previous role in Hail Ceaser!, however, not surprising given the leaked news during production that he needed an acting coach on set, with the production firing it’s set of directors mid-way through shooting (Phil Lord and Chris Miller) for established veteran Ron Howard… and not to mention the comparisons of his Solo interpretations to that of Jim Carrey’s Ace Ventura.
Not what you’d expect from a Star Wars franchise film but after watching Solo, I actually wish we could have seen that slapstick version instead.
Critics and fans will probably pan Phil Lord and Chris Miller for their ill-advised take on Solo steering this film into the abyss of no return only to be slightly righted by Howard under the careful eye of Disney. However it was only to bring it back to a steady hum of banking on Star Wars nostalgia, without the risks of what might have been.
Something the character Solo, would have never done.
Only Better than Star Wars Episode 1 and 2. By far the most unaspiring of the new Star Wars installments.
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