My Solo review is a 3 out of 5. It’s a good movie and it was really good to see Han’s intro, although this didn’t have the same weight for me as Rogue One did. It was fine, and I enjoyed myself, but it never became more than that. This is the second of the standalone Star Wars stories, and it’s a lighter, more playful film than the first (the comedy-first approach that worked so well for Thor: Ragnarok), with a lot more humour and a lot less at stake. That’s not a bad thing in itself, but it did mean I came out of it feeling less than I did after the last one.
Corellia, and a gang of thieves
The story starts on the shipyard planet Corellia, where a young Han is working for a gang with his girl Qi’ra, and the two of them try to escape. It’s a grimy, crowded, scrappy world, a long way from the Rebels and the Empire, and it’s a good place to start his story. Han doesn’t make it out the way he planned, and he ends up in the Imperial Navy. Three years on he’s a grunt on the front lines, where he meets a smuggler called Beckett and his crew. Beckett is a rough, weathered criminal who takes Han under his wing, and the early scenes with the two of them have a good, wry energy.
He gets in on a heist to steal coaxium, which is a hyperfuel, for a gangster named Dryden Vos, and when it goes wrong he promises to get the fuel from the mines of Kessel. Along the way he meets Chewbacca in a mud pit, which is one of the best introductions in the film. Han is quick-witted and cocky, and he talks his way out of a deadly situation by speaking Chewie’s language, and the two of them are suddenly stuck with each other. The set-up for their friendship is a lot of fun, and I enjoyed watching it come together.
The middle of the opening is the Imperial Navy stretch, where Han gets his first taste of war. He’s a foot soldier now, stuck in a muddy trench on a battlefield called Mimban, with troops dying around him and nothing like the glamour he’d imagined. That’s where he runs into Beckett and his crew, who are posing as Imperial soldiers while they look for a way to make some money. Han talks his way into their gang, and then he’s off. It’s a quick, entertaining set-up, and it makes the best of a character who’s supposed to be a loner by showing how he gets pulled into one crew after another.
It also sets up Han’s relationship with Chewbacca, who’s being held by the Imperials in a pit, and who turns out to be a lot more dangerous than he looks. The mud pit scene is a great little piece of action comedy, and it’s the sort of thing that makes you want to see these two on screen together a lot more.
Lando, the Falcon and the Kessel Run
What I liked is the stuff you’d hope for. Seeing how he gets his name, how he meets Chewie, how he ends up with the blaster, and how he gets hold of the Falcon is all fun. Lando Calrissian is stylish and good company, a gambler with a smooth voice and a cape for every occasion, and his ship, the Millennium Falcon, turns up as a prize in a card game. His droid co-pilot, L3-37, is a sharp, funny character who isn’t afraid to say what she thinks. The Kessel Run is a good action sequence and it finally answers the whole twelve parsecs thing. It’s fast and shaky and exciting.
The train heist is a decent bit of excitement too, and as heists go I’d put it nearer Ant-Man than anything gritty. It’s a Western-style robbery on a speeding train, with the crew leaping across the carriages and fighting off the raiders, and it’s the kind of thing a Han Solo story ought to have. It’s an entertaining ride from start to finish, and the film never takes itself too seriously. It’s closer in tone to Guardians of the Galaxy, whose Star-Lord is basically a Han Solo fan’s idea of a space rogue. I’d say it’s the part of the film I enjoyed most, because it’s pure adventure.
Qi’ra, Dryden Vos and the crew
The supporting cast is the part of the film that gives it some weight. Qi’ra, played by Emilia Clarke, is the girl Han left behind on Corellia, and when she turns up again she’s working for Dryden Vos, the crime lord Han and the crew owe the stolen coaxium to. Vos is smooth and dangerous, the head of a criminal syndicate, and Paul Bettany plays him as a man who’s polite right up until the moment he isn’t. The scenes on his yacht, with everyone in smart clothes and the knives just out of sight, are some of the sharpest in the film. It’s a world of crooks and smugglers, and it’s a lot of fun to spend time in.
Beckett’s crew is a good bunch too, a tight group of thieves who know exactly what they’re doing and are very good at it. Woody Harrelson is great as the cynical old hand who teaches Han a lesson he doesn’t want to learn, which is that you can’t trust anyone. The mix of old pros and wide-eyed newcomers is a classic heist formula, and the film plays it well. I liked watching them work together, even when I knew roughly where the story was going.
Kessel and the double-cross
The trip to Kessel is the middle of the film. The mines are a grim, dangerous place, with slaves digging the fuel out of the rock and a big uprising brewing beneath the surface. Lando’s droid L3-37 takes over and starts a revolt among the workers, and it makes the whole place feel like it’s coming apart at the seams. It’s a messy, chaotic scene, but it’s got a lot of energy, and it’s where the film feels most like a proper adventure.
From there it’s a race through the dangerous Kessel Run, with the Falcon dodging asteroids and creatures in the dark while the Empire chases it. It’s the biggest set piece of the film, and it’s where the story finally gives Han the chance to prove himself. He pulls it off in less than twelve parsecs, and I did enjoy that moment of payoff. After that it’s all about who’s going to double-cross whom, and the answer is more or less everyone.
Too many origins
But I didn’t need to see everyone’s intro. It felt like the film was ticking off every little thing about the characters, one by one, instead of letting them be who they are. I would have preferred to see Han introduced the way he was in A New Hope, a cocky smuggler we’ve just met, with all his history left to be guessed at. That’s the part that stopped it from having the same weight as the last one, where the story felt like it needed telling.
The film wants to answer every question about the character, how he got his name, his blaster, the Falcon, his first meeting with Chewie, and by the time you’ve seen all of them there isn’t much mystery left. That’s the trouble with an origin story, and it’s the main reason I wasn’t more excited. It’s a good time, but it’s the sort of thing that works better when you leave something to the imagination. Han double-crosses Beckett near the end and the film even finds a way to sneak in a face from the earlier films, and I appreciated that. But even that couldn’t make up for the feeling that I’d seen it all before.
What I made of it
What it comes down to is that I liked it, and I enjoyed it, and I’m not sure it needed to exist. The cast is good, the action works, and there’s a lot of fun in seeing how all of those little details about Han came together. But I’d have been happier meeting him the way I did in A New Hope, with all that history still left to guess.
That’s the reason I’m landing on a 3. It’s a good movie, but it didn’t have the same weight as Rogue One, and a lot of what it does is explain things that were better left alone. I’d happily watch it again on a quiet evening, and I’d tell a friend who loves Han to go and see it. I just wouldn’t call it essential. Rating: 3 out of 5. A good movie, and no more than that.