Solo: A Star Wars Story, which opens today in just about every Bay Area theater, is a big-screen comic-book origin story, with an accomplished and sometimes first rate cast in front of the camera, and some seriously seasoned talent behind it. Unfortunately, in the year-and-a-half since principal shooting began, issues real and manufactured have given the internet too much time to speculate, postulate, pontificate, and generally expectorate on any number of meaningless side stories. Thankfully, at the center of this mostly worthless dead zone of internet fodder lies a straightforward, entertaining film that should service, if not delight, Star Wars fans and casual viewers.
Cinema in the age of the internet struggles to keep its viewers focused simply on … film, and Solo is no exception. Yes, legendary LucasArts president Kathleen Kennedy replaced her original director team with predictable Ron Howard.Yes, star Alden Ehrenreich needed an acting coach. But should we care whether in Solo asteroids occur in fields or belts? And hey, I like my Harrison Ford as much as the next Star Wars fan, but do we really need to know what he said to Ron Howard upon first seeing the film? Want more? How about Donald Glover on how Lando Calrissian has to be pansexual. And my favorite, a review of the Denny’s Star Wars menu, complete with a photo of the two moons skillet hurtling through some distant quadrant of the galaxy.
Similarly, early impressions of Solo, most posted way before today’s release date, fall over themselves in their clickbaiting rush to judgement. From proclaiming that all prequels ruin storytelling, to a review of the film by someone who hasn’t seen Star Wars, to a slew of reviews like this one that weigh in the on the “Does Alden measure up to Harrison?” question, and basic critic observations about character development.
But what of the film itself? It begins on Solo’s home planet of Corellia, under Imperial control, and from which he is trying to escape with his love Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke, far removed from mothering her dragons in Game of Thrones). The action then moves to Mimban, where we meet Chewbacca for the first time, as well as a band of mercenary-brigands headed by Beckett (Woody Harrelson), with Val (Thandie Newton), and CG character Rio (voiced by Jon Favreau). Away next to Vandor we go and are treated to an old fashioned train-top fight scene, as well as our introduction to Lando Calrissian (the scene-stealing Donald Glover) and his droid L3-37 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, recently of the Amazon series Fleabag). Side note: if you haven’t seen Fleabag, then stop whatever you’re doing right now and binge it.
Tired yet? Next we fly aboard the shiny new Millenium Falcon to Kessel, and come under the spell of Drydon Vos (Paul Bettany, who this film doesn’t deserve). Our planetary odyssey takes us finally to windswept Savareen before hopping back to Vandor.
Why don’t I fill you in on the details? Because, along with a passable story that centers on a MacGuffin called Coaxium, seventy-five percent of the film’s fun comes in spectacular set-piece fights and chases, and so many Han Solo easter eggs, including how he got his last name, how he acquired his trademark Luger-like blaster, why he speaks a little Wookie, and why he was able to make that Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs (if you have to ask, then I can’t help you, but you might try going to 3:16 here. It’s at least a start.)
Much of the film’s credibility rests on us believing that Ehrenreich is an early Harrison Ford. I was somewhat disappointed, as Ehrenreich seems too pretty, and to eager to please to plausibly have much of a connection to the “scruffy looking Nerf Herder” who thrilled us all back in 1977 with his perfect delivery of lines like this. Thankfully, the acting is just good enough, and Ron Howard is smart enough to surround him with an extremely talented ensemble, that, like Pierce Brosnan as 007, we’re willing to go along for the ride. Interestingly, Solo is the first film to do away with paying any attention to the Force. No one uses it. No one even mentions it. Strangely, even explained by the great Alec Guinness, The Force seemed to take away from the hard-bitten reality of a galaxy at war, as if all aspects of the ongoing war were just a backdrop to the ultimate Light Side – Dark Side battle. And yet I missed it in Solo.
However, Solo, taken with other recent Star Wars releases Rogue One and The Last Jedi, has achieved a much more important accomplishment. Thinking back to that long ago galaxy far away (basically 1977 on Planet Earth) Star Wars proved that a sci fi film could combine the newest special effects with very old fashioned filmmaking to create spectacular results. Its two immediate sequels, The Empire Strikes Back, and the Return of the Jedi, suffered from too much budget and not enough studio control. We all know the sad story of the “middle three” (Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith) which would have been better as comic books, or maybe video games. Disney has done a great service to the franchise. We can now rely on a certain visual look, a certain acting style, a certain pace editing, and myriad other details which, collectively, tell us that Star Wars films in the Disney era will not be bad, not be great, but just reliably, entertainingly good.
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Solo: A Star Wars Story opens today in many, many Bay Area theaters
