Nerds That Geek Movie Review - 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'

Written by Joel T. Lewis

In many ways it’s not surprising that Solo: A Star Wars Story was met in lukewarm fashion l in terms of box office and critical reception. You might say that it was setup to fail. In the weeks following its release, I’ve saw a lot of references to what has been called ‘Star Wars Fatigue’ as the main cause of the film’s middling reception. While I am quite sure that that was a contributing factor I would argue that there are more tangible causes to be considered. Opening less than six months after The Last Jedi, a film sporting its own divisive reception and mediocre international box office numbers, Solo combined a worrying production which culminated in 75% of the film being reshot following the termination of the original directing team, the first summertime release for a Star Wars film since 2006’s Revenge of the Sith, and the recasting of perhaps one of the most iconic characters in all of cinema. With its competition being the biggest box office opening weekend in film history (at the time) in Avengers: Infinity War and the long-awaited Deadpool sequel, Solo constituted an uncertain bet following two sure things.
​
With all of that being said, the movie is a lot of fun, which is a credit that in recent years has become synonymous with films that are without any other merit. To classify Solo as such is a mistake. There’s a lot this film gets right. Casting for one thing, and if we’re truly honest with ourselves casting is the only thing. How do you recast Han Solo; a man whose bravado and confidence inspired emulation and aspiration (minus the subtle, but still present air of misogyny), whose roguish charm and reluctant heart of gold embodied the skeptical counterpoint to iconic farm boy optimism, one that high fantasy and sci-fi so desperately needed. He’s a mentor, a father figure, a firm friend, a hero, and a scoundrel. This film had to get one impossible thing right. It had to deliver Han Solo without Harrison Ford. This film does just that.

Alden Ehrenreich’s Solo is a little pluckier, a touch less jaded, and a bit more optimistic but the kid learns fast. Han and Qi’ra are Corellian street orphans under the oppressive ‘guardianship’ of subterranean nightmare worm Lady Promixa and her gang of street level malcontents. When a deal involving hyper-fuel goes south, Han manages to escape with enough of the valuable product to punch the orphans’ ticket off-world. The two abscond with the contraband but only Han manages to escape the planet by joining the imperial navy, planning to become a pilot and return to rescue Qi’ra as soon as he can.

We fast-forward 3 years to discover Han reduced to an infantry grunt in the trenches of a futile campaign on some mud-ball planet. Jaded over having been drummed out of the academy, Han stumbles upon a gang of thieves disguised as imperial squad members and in trying to inundate himself to their gang, finds himself thrown into the pit of an imperial brig. We then snap to a Mud-Pit Meet-Cute (patent pending) between a terrified Han and a mud caked Chewbacca who team-up (after Chewie tries to eat Han), escape, and convince the band of thieves to add them to their crew. They pull a job, it goes bad, and only Han, Chewie, and the leader of the Gang, Tobias Beckett survive. The unlikely trio are then tasked to explain to their employer the decadent, fun-loving, and homicidal Dryden Vos what went wrong and how they plan to fix it. 

---

As they wait to meet with Vos, Han discovers that Qi’ra has found herself in the employ of Vos and the criminal organization of which he is a lieutenant, Crimson Dawn. This happy reunion is overshadowed by Vos’ rage and the hold he has over Qi’ra. So Han, Tobias, and Chewie must improvise their way out of being murdered on the spot. In order to pay Dryden Vos back they plan to procure a ship, run to Kessel, steal some unrefined hyper-fuel, and speed to an abandoned refinery on a distant planet in order to refine the fuel before it explodes. They seek out Lando Calrissian and the Millennium Falcon, and recruit him after a high-stakes, and decidedly larcenous Sabacc game with Han, in which Lando cheats after staking the Falcon. They navigate their way to Kessel, steal the fuel, Lando’s sassy droid first mate incites a robotic revolution, and they hop from frying pan to fire as their escape route is blocked by an imperial blockade. Han takes charge, piloting the Falcon through the dangerous and mysterious Maelstrom, dodging Tie-Fighters and planetoid sized squid monsters to set his most auspicious speed record, making the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs.
​
Arriving at the refinery on Savareen the motley crew is ambushed once again by rival gang the Cloud-Riders who foiled their previous heist and we discover this gang to be made up of optimistic freedom fighters (presumably the first whispers of the Rebel Alliance). Han and company minus Beckett who leaves saying he’s going home, and Lando, who runs at the first sign of trouble, decide to help the freedom fighters and go to speak to Dryden Vos. What comes next is a string of betrayal plot twists which rival the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Beckett returns to betray Han to Vos, informing him of his plan to let the Cloud-Riders escape with the hyper-fuel. Han, anticipating this, turns Vos’ ambush on its head which in turn causes Beckett to betray Vos taking Chewbacca hostage and leaving with the hyper-fuel. Qi’ra seems to betray Han as they go toe-to-toe with Vos only to turn the tables and kill her employer at the last second. She then sends Han after Chewie and the hyper-fuel while she reports to the leader of Crimson Dawn (Darth Maul) that Vos was murdered by Tobias. Qi’ra then installs herself as Vos’ replacement and strands Solo and Chewie, taking the ship to rendezvous with Maul on Dathomir. Han has a final showdown with Beckett, resulting in Han shooting first for the first time. Crushed but not defeated by Qi’ra’s final betrayal, Han and Chewie track down Lando, Han wins his ship, and the film ends as the duo hurtle through hyperspace towards a desert planet called Tatooine, a big gangster, and one big job.

Third acts are hard. This does not excuse Solo’s overcrowded, overcomplicated, and poorly paced third act but it is important to remember that it isn’t just Star Wars movies that hobble themselves by trying to do too much in their third acts. Despite this convoluted sag at the end of the film, Solo is briskly paced, sports well executed set pieces, and it’s cast trades enough charisma and chemistry to make the fun of this film outshine its shortcomings. Solo is a great example of the Star Wars films refining the formula for churning out content that resists genre and franchise fatigue. Solo attempted a very clever variation on the opening title sequence that Rogue One awkwardly ignored and botched with an off-putting font choice, and while I still cringe at Disney’s commitment to the ‘A Star Wars Story’ subtitle for these anthology films the title sequence for Solo was surprisingly pleasant. Also, these film makers are slowly figuring out the balance that needs to be struck between nostalgia Easter eggs and new content. There are moments in Rogue One and Force Awakens where the instances of ‘oh hey, do you remember this from Star Wars!?’ cross the border of fan service into pandering territory. Solo does a better, but not perfect, job of balancing these little nods.

Also, Solo is intimate and smaller in scale than previous Star Wars films, which is to its credit. This is another testament, as was Rogue One, of the Star Wars Universe as a setting where all kinds of stories can take place. This film was a ‘scum and villainy’ side story, a heist film, and an origin where whole fleets didn’t have to do battle, Jedi didn’t have to use mind tricks, and the fate of the universe wasn’t at stake. The way I see these Anthology films is as the tempering ground for Star Wars as a setting, a vehicle for all sorts of stories grandiose and minute in scale and impact, rather than a saga exclusively following the history of the Skywalkers and the Jedi. To that end, Solo is a great next step in solidifying this universe as a place where great stories can continue to take place. Until next time, Geek On!

---