Review of Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) by Rob H — 01 Jun 2018

On the whole this is a good and enjoyable film, I might even call it unexpectedly good. It fills in some of the blanks about Han and Lando's relationship, provides a passable backstory for Han, and even manages to turn Qi'ra into a character whose development I care about, given of course that we get a sequel in some medium.

It's not a perfect film, of course. Han makes a nonsensical decision to give away, rather than split, 60 million credits; Beckett starts as a promising independent character but all that melts away when he needs to become a character development device for Han, both in terms of "shooting first" and ham-fistedly teaching Han "lessons" (I'm a touch surprised then didn't just name Beckett "Mentor"); the need to fill in gaps and turn throwaway lines from the 1977 Star Wars into big events was obvious but disappointing from a screenwriting standpoint; and other minor things just rub me the wrong way, like a random imperial officer giving Han his surname.

But Solo has rewatch value, and at its core was fun to watch in the theater. The music gave me authentic goosebumps at times, both at points where beats from John Williams' score were tastefully reused and when John Powell gave a tragically beautiful leitmotif to the Han/Qi'ra relationship. After the debacle of The Last Jedi, Solo didn't deserve to bomb, but I guess I understand why no one trusted Lucasfilm to deliver on this one. And yet, deliver they did-well done to Ron Howard. I can only hope we get a sequel, unlikely as that now seems.