Solo: A Star Wars Story

As of today, in May 2018, the state of the fandom surrounding Star Wars is at an impasse. There's a large majority of people who are completely disowning the newer films, claiming that Disney has ruined the franchise wholeheartedly. On the flipside, there's a majority who believe that Disney has only made the franchise even better, with films that easily stomp the quality of some of the older ones, especially the prequels. It's definitely a dark time in the franchise, and everyone's pointing fingers at everyone. I'm somewhere in the middle as always.

So, with that, you'll find that the general air around Solo is a bit stained. A lot of people have denounced all of their love for Star Wars as a whole (I think that's a bit of an overreaction) and because of that they want nothing to do with this film. Even the people who do still love Star Wars are a bit wary, including myself, who constantly quote that it should have never been made due to lack of interest overall. Nevertheless, Disney's about to milk that cash cow as much as they can, and so, Solo's here, and I went to see it with a massive amount of caution.

Luckily, my caution was actually ill-advised, because I found that Solo was actually surprisingly good.

Doing a movie like this is really no easy feat, as it's hard to really do a decent origin story for a character we've already been introduced to. Because of the struggle, a lot of studios end up flubbing the whole project by introducing anti-continuity aspects that just ruin the whole franchise all together. Luckily, Solo seems to mostly have that struggle under its belt, as everything it puts together seems to fit as a whole continuity wise. There's nothing that really sticks out as something that's impossible or obstructs things set forth in other films. That alone makes the movie quite a surprising watch.

One of the main criticisms going into the film is the casting of Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo. While he may not look the part of a super-young Harrison Ford, for the most part, Ehrenreich does a decent job portraying the part, as he has a lot of the mannerisms down that remind you of the way Harrison portrayed the role. Another actor that came into play a younger character we've already seen is Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. Now, I love Donald Glover, and I love Lando, so naturally, this pairing really goes hand in hand for me, and luckily, just as Ehrenreich did, Glover portrays a younger Billy Dee Williams down to a tee. 

Other praises can go towards the supporting cast, made up by the likes of Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, and Paul Bettany, all doing their best to make this movie whole. I also have to respect the directing likes of Ron Howard, who managed to put together this movie after a lot of struggle over its original directors, and not flub it up completely. It's got a lot of good Howard-isms in it as well, so keep your eye out for those among the beautiful visuals.

But, like most movies, Solo is not perfect all around. There are a lot of struggles with pacing and dialogue that I can't help but notice. For instance, the movie feels like it struggles a bit on take off, taking you from one place to another in order to introduce our main character before finally getting to the main gist of the story. Also, a lot of lines written for certain characters seem choppy and, on the whole, stupid and uncharacteristic of the characters in question. 

But overall, a few choppy bits can't harm a movie overall, so I'm pretty surprised with how well Solo managed to keep itself together. It's everything that TLJ should have been, even in its roughest state. Solo earns itself a 7.3/10.