Movie Review: 'Solo' doesn't fly well in his own film

Lucasfilm/Walt Disney

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018, directed by Ron Howard. USA, English, Color, 135 minutes) When you thought the Star Wars franchise was heading up from a forgetful opening trilogy that set up the backstory to the landmark space opera, "Solo" brings it right back down to the level of the first three episodes we wish we could forget. 

Because "Star Wars" is so well known studios can make any film they want that is based on the original trilogy so long as the Star Wars tag is attached to it. It's a full-proof way to make money without guaranteeing that the quality will be there. The problem with that is there is no mystery left to anything; we are force fed explanations behind characters and stories that sometimes aren't warranted just so the studio can make a few bucks. Han Solo was such a cool, rogue character in the fight against the empire that I never really cared to know his origins, and why do you need to? He's a standalone icon in cinema who should have been left on his own and not used for a cheap plot that was ruffled together for this film. 

A major problem with doing a spin-off film, such as "Solo", is the expectations that are drawn from fans. Will we find out how he pissed off the Hutts? How did he get the Millennium Falcon? Where did he meet Chewbacca? To answer any and all of these questions (for one film) requires a plot that is convenient to wrap them all up in one package that doesn't come off as anything that Solo would be a part of... I don't think.

In a mish-mash of genres and storylines from better films we discover that Solo is trying to escape his planet of Corellia and falls in with a group of outliers who plan to steal a bevy of crucial energy material for a wealthy man who is owed money by Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson). The first major action sequence of a train robbery on a snowy mountain is an awesome one, and probably the only good one. It all goes downhill from there with an overly worked out scheme to steal the energy units, having Solo fall in love with a woman and it's all enveloped with a sprinkling of humor to keep it light enough. I doubt Han Solo would ever get tricked into such a plan. If he was portrayed as rough as when we first met him in Episode IV, he wouldn't have been so soft and compliant as he is in this film.

The movie had a lot of noticeable elements of style from the following films which muddled the overall aesthetic here: the seduction of a woman and a high stakes gamble from any James Bond film; the planning and execution of a robbery by any '60s French crime film from Melville or Besson; care needed to transport explosive material like in Clouzot's "The Wages of Fear". "Solo" borrows from so many great films before this that it can't stand as a good film on its own, not when this space opera has been worked for 40 years now and there are better stories that came from the series already.

"Solo" is a cash cow that doesn't need to impress the masses, even when though die hard "Star Wars" fans will have their opinions ready to go before the draw of a lightsaber. But to anyone wanting a bit of fun, the studio should have made a better effort to keep them interested.

Rating: D+