By: Andrew Ha
★★★½
Solo: A Star Wars Story is the origin story of notorious outlaw and pilot Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and his introduction into the criminal underworld of the universe. The film follows Solo’s first mission smuggling hyperfuel for a crime syndicate known as Crimson Dawn; through the journey, Han befriends some well-known characters within the Star Wars universe, including Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) and Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover). Set between Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV – A New Hope, Solo is underpinned by the fallout of the Galactic Empire’s takeover and the emergence of the Rebel Alliance.
One of the strongest points of Solo is its ability to entertain and engage the viewer. Through the entire film, director John Howard provides a plethora of thrilling action scenes as the team makes its attempts to obtain hyperfuel. There’s certainly an aspect of suspense in many parts of the movie. And in classic Star Wars manner, the CGI, animations, special effects of the film were amazing, adding more to the spectacle. Moreover, Ehrenreich aptly portrays Solo as the daring and rebellious bandit that fans have known over the years. Being one of the only relatively unknown actors in the movie, Ehrenreich stands out as being capable of taking over such a recognizable figure.
Nevertheless, Solo’s major flaws are its lack of character development and depth and its play-it-safe theatrics. Characters act the same all throughout the film, rendering characters are predominantly static. The movie plays it safe without having any controversial topics to spur discussion after the film; because of this, the movie is entertaining at the moment, but forgettable afterwards. Nothing major is left to linger in the viewers’ minds, for Solo essentially just becomes “another action movie.” The plotline is also quite simple and straightforward. The smugglers have a singular objective and any obstacles are overcome within the scenes. Furthermore, by hiring popular actors and actresses, the movie risks blurring the line between character and actor and actress. One of the difficulties for watching Solo is to see the actors or actresses as the character of the movie, rather than who they are in real life.