Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Directed by: Ron Howard | 135 minutes | action, adventure | Actors: Alden Ehrenreich, Joonas Suotamo, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau, Linda Hunt, Ian Kenny, John Tui, Anna Francolini, Andrew Woodall, Warwick Davis, Charlotte Louise, Clint Howard, Dee Tails, Attila Vajda, Anthony Daniels, Kiran Shah, Lily Newmark

After the hugely successful reboot with ‘The Force Awakens’ in 2015, the ‘Star Wars’ franchise is more alive than ever before. In addition to the continuation of the ‘chronological’ films, more and more plans for prequels and spin-offs about undiscovered stories arose. Where the grim ‘Rogue One’ previously gave a hesitant start to a series of prequels, ‘Solo’ is a spin-off that is lighter, but on the other hand also much too good and a bit uninspired.

The preparations for ‘Solo’ did not go very smoothly. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were sidelined by Disney halfway through a “difference in creative views” and replaced headlong by veteran Ron Howard (“The Da Vinci Code”). An ‘acting coach’ was called in for the protagonist. They aren’t quite ‘Apocalypse Now’-like scenes, but expectations were nonetheless restrained. Were we waiting for a spin-off about Han Solo, transformed into a living legend by Harrison Ford?

The answer is a cautious yes: this spin-off is quite worthwhile. We get to know Han Solo (played here by Alden Ehrenreich, best known for his hilarious supporting role in ‘Hail, Caesar!’) as a young thief who has to flee his home island in a hurry with his beloved Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke). Han manages to escape the island, regretting having to leave Qi’ra behind. A few years later, he joins a group of thieves led by Beckett (Woody Harrelson), who are ordered to steal something by Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany). In addition to an introduction to Han’s life, the film also tells the story of the development of the friendship between Han and his later faithful companion Chewbacca.

The danger of a prequel about already well-known film characters is often a lack of urgency: is the audience really waiting for a film devoted to a character that has already been seen in many films? ‘Solo’ offers no big reveals and therefore does not raise many new questions. We learn how Han and Chewbacca got to know each other, how Han managed to win the Millennium Falcon and how he got his name (nice wink to ‘The Godfather II’), but that’s about it for the most part. The film is mainly entertaining, but then again manages to surprise just too little to really make an impression. Han also undergoes little to no development during the film.

‘Solo’ works just a bit better than ‘Rogue One’. That spin-off also suffered from a lack of urgency, but also suffered from a poignant lack of depth among the main characters. The characters in ‘Solo’ are developed a little more nicely and are played with visible pleasure by the actors. Alden Ehrenreich once again confirms that he is a talent and proves himself an acceptable ‘successor’ to Harrison Ford. With fine actors such as Woody Harrelson and Donald Glover (the rapper who caused a furore with the video clip ‘This is America’), the characters work fine, and the characters are well attuned to each other. The fact that the film lacks a clearly present bad guy does not get in the way of the film, the gray tones in the other characters are sufficiently present for that.

‘Solo’ manages to find a pretty nice balance between drama and humour, the actors are well placed and the film remains captivating from start to finish. The action scenes are not great and a bit lazily edited, but otherwise quite entertaining. ‘Solo’ does the original franchise more than enough credit, which unfortunately leads to the film not daring to color outside the lines at all. Disney’s lack of urgency and conservativeness seem to continue to play tricks on the ‘Star Wars’ spin-offs. A little more daring would have been welcome, although that was not to be expected with the careful choice of Ron Howard. All in all, an entertaining film, which makes us curious about what we will see from Alden Ehrenreich in the coming years.