I'm pretty split about Solo. On one hand,
it's a Star Wars movie and I have a soft spot for anything Star Wars.
The film assembled an excellent cast and got good performances out of nearly
all of them. The action set pieces are well put together, inventive, and
intricate. On the other hand, it has some tonal issues that I'm sure tie back
to behind the scenes drama and the storytelling is filled with pet peeves of
mine.
As you can assume from the title, Solo is a
Han Solo origin story. It begins with Han (Alden Ehrenreich) on a run-down
shipbuilding planet called Corellia. He and his girlfriend, Qi'ra (Emilia
Clarke), work indebted to a local crime boss and dream of getting off that
planet. When an escape attempt leaves Han and Qi'ra separated, Han enlists in
the Imperial army hoping to become an Imperial pilot (really, he just wants to
be a pilot. He's pretty indifferent about the Empire). That doesn't go so well,
because, you know, Han doesn't follow orders very well. He deserts the Imperial
army to join a gang of thieves led by Thomas Beckett (Woody Harrelson). It's a
pretty plot-heavy movie, so I'll stop there. I'm pretty sure no one is deciding
whether or not to see this based on the story, anyway.
I was very pleased with how they populated this
movie. Donald Glover's Lando Calrissian is a pitch perfect Billy Dee Williams
impression. He has some fun exaggerating the character, but he doesn't go too
wild with it. I've heard a lot of people say that the movie needed more Lando.
I do agree that more Donald Glover makes everything better, but I'm actually
fine with the amount we get. Lando is such a big character, that he'd take over
the movie if there was more of him. Emilia Clarke is great in Game of
Thrones, but it was Terminator Genysis
that convinced me she's an action movie star. She fits right in as Han's
morally compromised old flame. Woody Harrelson has aged nicely into mentor
roles. He's not a role model, but he is the person Han needs to become the man
we meet in A New Hope (Han shot first!). Phoebe Waller-Bridge has a
delightful minor role voicing Lando's droid co-pilot, L3. She's an outspoken
"droids' rights" advocate. It's a brash performance. I imagine
audience response to her will be divisive. I liked the character because they
don't use her too much. Any more of her would've been annoying. Chewbacca shows
up. The best thing I can say about that is that I didn't realize Peter Mayhew
wasn't playing him. Joonas Suotamo (also Chewie in The Last Jedi) gets
the physicality of that performances right.
You've probably noticed that I've avoided talking
about Alden Ehrenriech as Han. Well, he is fine in the roe. He is not doing a
Harrison Ford impression. Thank god. That is a fool's errand. His performance
is recognizably Han though. As I mentioned, this is a very plot-heavy movie with
a lot of characters to introduce. Ehrenreich ends up the odd man out. Han is the
lead character in that he's in almost every scene, but the focus is normally on
the other characters or what's happening in the scene. Hopefully, if they do
make a sequel, more time will be spent figuring out what Ehrenriech can bring to
the role. I loved him in Hail, Caesar!
I'm sure he has more to offer as Han than what we see in Solo.
With any origin story, the audience is going in with
a set of questions they are hoping to have answered. Solo tries to
answer all of them. That's a feature and a bug. Ron Howard and the Kasdans
would've been crucified if they skipped things like the Kessel Run or how Han
and Chewie met. The explanations they come up with all work individually. They
do an admirable job fitting them all into the movie. The problem I ran into is
that this checklist of questions to answer drove the story too much. Han Forrest
Gumps his way through his own life. Another thing that bothered me is that
Han Solo has a lifetime of stories when we meet him in A New Hope. It's
frustrating to see all those stories covered in the few weeks or months that
this movie takes place in. Given that Disney has plans for a sequel, you'd
think they'd split some of it up. As is, if they make Solo 2 (or, as I'm
calling it, Duo), they'll have to build this great adventure out of
things that Han never mentions again.
OK, it's time for the elephant in the room. Midway
through production, Disney replaced directors Phillip Lord and Chis Miller with
Ron Howard. I adore Lord & Miller's other movies (The Lego Movie, 21 & 22 Jump Street).
They are masters at making bad ideas into good ideas. Ron Howard's movies are
quite good as well, although his greatest skill has always been making
studio-friendly movies with a fairly invisible touch. I've had some time to
think about this, and here's my take: I'm glad Ron Howard took over. In fact, I
wish he would've had the movie from the start. Star Wars isn't ready for
a Lord & Miller take on the series. They work best when they can point out
the inherent ridiculousness of the story. Their Solo would look more
like Thor Ragnarok.
I enjoyed Ragnarok a lot, but it only worked because it was the third Thor
movie. The character and world were established. The story in Solo isn't
ready for that kind of anarchy. Watching Solo was a little bizarre,
because the parts that felt like Lord & Miller jokes or scenes died both
times I saw it. It's like Ron Howard and the editors didn't know how to get
those moments to work. I feel like those would've been a lot smoother had
Howard been able to craft those from the beginning. Granted, I'll never really
know what parts of the movie came from Howard and which came from Lord &
Miller. All I can say is that the tone of the movie didn't really work. I
assume that's due to the direction change.
If Solo wasn't a Star Wars Story - if
it was some generic Sci Fi action movie, I can't say I'd love it that much. It
fails my One Big Leap
test by shrinking the universe too much. The plot drives too much of it and the
lead character is somewhat anonymous. Solo is a Star Wars
Story though. With that comes an infrastructure that I love. The music, the
effects, the production design, and the costumes are all on point. The world is
filled with interesting characters and the casting is impeccable. I happily saw
the movie twice this weekend (something I almost never do except for Star
Wars movies).
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
I went on a longrant about Solo's opening weekend at the box office. It went a little long, so I
made it its own post. (which I'll be posting soon)
Some other spoilery thoughts:
*I am not a fan of how much the movie shrank the Star
Wars universe. Darth Maul just happens to be Qi'ra's boss. Han essentially
bankrolls the Rebellion that he'll be joining a decade or two later. Han's
first job as a thief, presumably the first thing he does since signing up for
the Imperial army on the day they were separated, leads him to Qi'ra by
complete coincidence. I forgive a lot of this with Jedi or characters strong in
the Force. The Force is a convenient excuse for contrivance in these movies,
but it doesn't make as much sense for a Force agnostic character like Han Solo.
It's just lazy writing.
*The punchlines in this were very weird. Han getting
the last name "Solo". That was clearly meant to be a wink at the
audience joke (i.e. the writer/director saying "we're in on the joke. We
know it's dumb. That's why it's funny"), but it plays awfully. It got more
groans than laughs. The joke about Han holding a rock and pretending it's a
bomb died both times I saw it. It needed one more beat to work. There's the
scene when Qi'ra takes down the guy on Kessel during their
"negotiations". They don't actually show what she did. They just have
L3 comment on it in awe. I'd be shocked if that wasn't a Lord & Miller
joke, or at least one written with them in mind. It's too meta not to be. That
didn't get much of a reaction either when I saw it. That's what I mean when I
say the tone was off. There's a good laugh to be found in all of these things
but they weren't played right. Don't get me wrong. Plenty of jokes did work. I
loved Lando riding off with the Millennium Falcon. That was great as was L3's
excitement during her Norma Rae moment. It's mostly the one-liners that
fell flat.
*The Kessel Run is the one absolute requirement in
the movie and they did it justice. They tied it into how the Falcon got so
banged up by A New Hope really nicely. I've always assumed that Han's brag
about making the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs didn't have to be a gaff. I'm
sure it was a goof at the time, because Han clearly said that in A New Hope
to brag about its speed, not his piloting. In Solo, they justify why he
would be so proud of that accomplishment. That said, it sure would've had more
of an impact if it wasn't the first time piloting the ship. I love how
instantly it's clear that this Kessel Run is going to be Han's pick-up line at
every bar for the rest of his life.
*I've caught onto Lucasfilm's strategy in these
non-saga movies: If everyone dies, then there's less to explain later. Everyone
in Rogue One dies. In Solo, Qi'ra is the only character we didn't
know beforehand to survive. Even leaving that loose end is going to be a
problem. I really like Qi'ra. They can't make her too much more important to
Han, because there's no sign of a Qi'ra in his past in A New Hope.
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