The amount of comparisons available to be drawn between Solo: A Star Wars Story, and DC's ill-fated Suicide Squad is quite frankly embarrassing and hilarious, not least in relation to the quality of both films in question. You may have noticed that I haven't bothered in this review to give a backdrop to the universe the film is set in, the idea behind it, or the production of the movie itself. There are three main reasons for that. The first is simple: you know what Star Wars is and there is a high chance that you also know who Han Solo is. Even if you haven't seen the movies you'll likely be familiar to some extent with the existence of the intergalactic behemoth and I see no reason to set out the universe when there are whole videos and articles across the Internet devoted entirely to doing that in much greater depth. The second point is fairly similar, which is to say that the production of this movie has become infamous to say the least. An incredibly troubled production not least because of the departure of original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller followed by the swift bringing in of (the incredibly safe) Ron Howard to finish the job, I'd recommend reading up on this if you're interested; to be honest, it serves as an explanation for many of the film's more egregious issues. Thirdly, in case you couldn't tell, this movie is such a dull and pointless waste of time that I would rather just begin explaining the movie's positives and (extensive) negatives instead of wasting both your time and my own outlining the background. Even though I suppose I just did that briefly. The plot of the latest entry into the Star Wars franchise revolves around a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) setting out into the world driven by personal motivations but finds himself caught up with a group of criminals, including his iconic sidekick Chewbacca, a young Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) and some other quirky characters, who are soon sent on a seemingly impossible mission for a powerful mastermind. Quite similar to another movie I mentioned near the start. The primary problem with the plot is that straight from the off you understand exactly where this story is going and where it is going to end up. This is an incredibly safe movie all things considered, a comment which can apply equally to all aspects of the movie but which is especially true of the script in general. The movie could have offered an interesting twist on the heist genre, blending the usual plot with a comedic tone and a Star Wars setting. It's strange then that Ron Howard (who reportedly reshot around 70% of the movie) seemed so content to settle for a predictable and formulaic plot structure. It makes the movie feel bland immediately and feel boring throughout. For a world such as Star Wars with an extensive backdrop, history, and worlds to explore, it seems like a wasted opportunity more than anything else. The tone of the movie is a mess also. The movie really is a Frankenstein's monster, a product of what happens when the visions of two different directors clash and do not mesh in any way. Whereas the movie started clearly as a comedy under the direction of Lord and Miller, it was transformed into a drama by Howard. However, certain elements were kept from the original version and not changed, and therefore the tone feels incredibly inconsistent. The most notable example is of the character of L3, Lando's female droid and played by Pheobe Waller-Bridge. Hints of the characters' relations to others as well as personality traits initially seem to be played up as jokes, the characters themselves rolling their eyes and on the verge of laughing. However, in a mission to remove all sense of personality from the movie, in the very next sequence, these are played completely straight and in an attempt to extract sympathy and emotion from the audience. In short, it's a messy affair, as well as a dull one.
The reason the writers might seem to have blocked themselves into this situation is that this movie is built as the embodiment of fan service. A handful of lines taken from the original trilogy are what form the basis of this movie. "I completed the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs" - better throw that in there. "He won the Falcon from me in a game of sabaac" - that sounds like we could throw it in. This is the mindset I can only imagine the writers had. It is on these that a cohesive and genuinely engaging plot was attempted to be built. Is it really a wonder that the writers found themselves reduced to a formula familiar to anyone who has watched a heist movie before and predictable to everyone else? However, as opposed to, God forbid, developing this structure and building on the characters of the movie in a meaningful way (don't worry, we'll get to that soon enough), they choose to flesh out the movie to the laboriously long 2 hour and 15 minute runtime by way of a barrage of action sequences, flashing colours, and, the point of this segment, fan service. Fan service, in the mind of the Kasdans (the writers), is the name of the game when it comes to this movie. There are numerous moments devoted entirely to these small lines from the original movies, and in fairness some of these are the best scenes in the movie (the gambling sequences stand out in particular due to the acting, production design, lighting, and actual tension). However, the issue of these relates to the much bigger problem of Han's character which I'll discuss in much more depth below. There are also some other moments which act as winks to the camera, a smirk at the audience as certain lines and delivery act as a method for certain questions to be raised and quickly answered. Not that these are questions you have ever wondered or cared to have answered prior to the release of this film of course. No, like I said, this is simply padding to a movie which has no story to tell. This began as a poorly conceived idea, and was barely developed from that, leaving the writers, director(s), producers, and everyone else involved with the movie with no option but to fall back on fan service, fan service, and, you guessed it, more fan service. Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with fan service in movies, of course there isn't. The problem with the execution of it in this movie, however, can be summed up in a remarkably simple way: the questions it answers are those nobody really wanted the answer to, and the questions it raises or sets up are ones which nobody cares about and/or finds interesting. Therefore, it does nothing to improve your engagement in the movie (with the exception perhaps of one moment in the final third although this is almost guaranteed to either confuse non-fans or make those familiar with the lore roll their eyes), and as a result makes this movie not only a drab and predictable experience, but also an exasperating one.
Alden Ehrenreich does his best to bring the same charisma to the role as the iconic Harrison Ford
All that said, it is possible to still enjoy a movie even when the plot falls short or certain elements feel forced when it still has good characters and good performances. Well, the movie certainly has a lot of characters. A lot of static characters. What I mean by the term "static characters" is that they do not change over the course of the movie; they act in certain manner or have a certain disposition at the beginning of the plot and, even after the events of the plot which often personally effect them, they are the same at the end. As a result, they are not interesting to work and it becomes difficult to become engaged in any of their acts or care about them at a decent level. Of course, we know Han, Chewie, and Lando will survive the movie but, as with Rogue One 2 years ago, as the movie is otherwise populated by an entirely new set of characters, the benefit should be that we do not know what will happen to them, whether they die or not. It is the job of the writers to build interesting arcs and develop these characters so that we care about them, so that we become attached to them and so, most importantly of all perhaps, we are interested in their journeys. But the movie seems content to not do that. Emilia Clarke's Qi'ra has probably the closest thing to what could be described as an "arc" but the character herself does not really change over the course of the movie and simply takes advantage of different situations. Woody Harrelson's Beckett is also part of some scenes early in the movie which seem to lay the groundwork for the character to grow and change away from how we initially meet him, but the movie yet again drops the ball, and seemingly forgets these scenes ever happens. Despite the gravity and weight the scenes should carry for the character, he carries on as normal and is the same from the beginning to the end. Also, for everyone referencing L3 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) as one of the highlights and funniest parts of the movie, I quite simply cannot understand the points of view. I don't know what else to say about this irritating, pandering and frankly confusing presence. The same can be said of returning characters such as Lando, who has charisma and nothing more. It feels yet again that the writers failed to take the opportunity to build on that character - ultimately, we learn nothing new about him and it is simply a carbon copy of what we have already seen. That said, the greatest offence the movie commits with regards characters is in relation to Han himself and this relates to two main points, but both significantly weaken the character. Firstly, when we first meet Han in A New Hope, even before he undergoes any development, part of the fun of the character is the mystery he carries with him. Events are referenced with no context and different people hate him for reasons untold and it makes the character somewhat interesting. His name is also ludicrous and the fact he can speak Wookie isn't explained but we just accept it because this is Star Wars. This is obviously relating to the point I mentioned before about answering questions we didn't need answered so I won't spend much more time on this. Much more importantly, the second point regards how this movie fundamentally weakens the character of Han. Think again about A New Hope. The entire time Han is on screen, he is in it for himself. All he cares about is his money, even when saving a Princess, with no desire to be part of something bigger and leaves just before the attack on the original Death Star. Therefore, when he returns to help the heroes with their attack, it is surprising to us because this is NOT in character. We understand that, thanks to his experiences with Luke, Ben, and Leia, he has changed as a character and does actually care about others; he is the rogue with a heart of gold that we all hoped he would be, even if he still won't admit it himself. This is good character development this movie sets out to destroy. From the very start of this movie, we are shown quite explicitly that Han does care about others, he wants to be a part of a team, and his entire motivation for the most part is to help someone and later to help many many others. This is his character at the start and his character at the end (yet another static character). The problem here is that this weakens the character of Han in the original trilogy significantly. It completely removes the surprise of the original movie relating to the character's return as this clearly shows that he would have probably done this anyway; there is no shock, no surprise, and with this movie in mind (for those of you saying that the original movie can still be taken on its own, the fact is that this is still one franchise and one universe and this movie supposedly relates to the same character and therefore it is a valid consideration) the character is turned from an interesting turncoat rogue into a love sick puppy dog.
Emilia Clarke's Qi'ra promises more excitement in this image than is ever delivered
Now for the most shocking part of this whole review: it's not all bad. Believe it or not, there are some good points in the movie. For example, some of the performances are good. Not all of them. Emilia Clarke is an offender of particular note who seems to be phoning in the performance for a pay cheque, as is Woody Harrelson, with both failing to bring any weight or presence to their already weak characters although the latter fairs slightly better. The rest of the actors are doing the best with what they have to work with. Disney quite frankly threw lead actor Alden Ehrenreich under the bus a few months before release in an already troubled production by accidentally "leaking" (although maybe I'm being cynical) that an acting coach had been brought in to help him on set. It's a shame that this happened, because it seems to have led to a lot of unwarranted fear. He does fine with what he has. It's difficult to see how he could have done better with what was in the (in case I haven't made it clear already) awful script. The two best performances in the movie are Paul Bettany and Donald Glover. Paul Bettany plays the villain, gangster Dryden Vos. Make no mistake, referring to him as a "character" is generous but Bettany is having the time of his life on screen, and gives an incredibly fun and over the top performance, at the very least making sure he is an entertaining presence for his unfortunately short screen time. Donald Glover's Lando is also a highlight, with Glover bringing a great deal of charisma and charm to the character that makes him a delight to watch. Make no mistake, as a result of the script (that little chestnut again), this amounts to little more than an impression of Billy Dee Williams but damn does he do it well, with you completely believing this is a younger version of the same character from the moment you meet him. However, he again suffers from being criminally underused. Let's talk about the action, which is in general quite fun to watch. It moves at a good pace, and the effects work (more on that briefly in a little bit) ensures you are engaged in the sequence fully. When the script doesn't intervene with dreadful dialogue to make you remember the rest of the movie, you can easily become immersed in the action and at these points the movie becomes considerably more enjoyable to watch. That said, even these sequences are unremarkable. While the beats may be fun, helped largely by the Star Wars setting and universe, these are still nothing we haven't seen before. There's a big space monster to make a smuggling run more interesting. There's a sequence which in hindsight is almost an exact rip-off of the Rey/Kylo Ren/Snoke throne room confrontation from The Last Jedi in terms of the themes and set-up it carries. There's a sequence in trenches with lots of random explosions and nothing but shots of soldiers looking while a generic drill sergeant commander shouts "get out there!" The fact is that none of these are original concepts, and completely fails to capitalise on the science fiction genre and the imagination it allows you to exercise. You could have done anything with this setting, but like the rest of the movie the action beats are content to fall back on extremely familiar tropes. That said, they are still fun so if you can get past that I completely understand and they are enjoyable. Regards the rest of the production design, the sets are usual look excellent but the costume design is a shockingly bland area. Han walks around in a leather jacket for the whole movie while Qi'ra seems to be wearing Earth clothes. Lando's wardrobe is colourful but I never imagined that he only wore capes as the writers seem to have done. I suppose they saw that the original Lando wore a cape and went with that. The cinematography is serviceable but fails to capture the sweeping and spine-tingling moments of the other movies in the franchise, despite John Powell's best efforts to capture some magic through his score.The effects work is probably the only area of the movie which I can praise unconditionally. At the very least we can trust a Star Wars movie to always be excellent to look at. Unfortunately, apart from that, as you can see, it's often difficult to find another part of the movie which is consistently good, although there are undoubtedly some good moments.
Donald Glover's Lando is a shining light in the movie but is sadly underused
What is there left to say about the misguided and ultimately pointless movie? It's true that there are some good performances and action, while the effects are on point as always - that I cannot deny. However, that does not excuse the rest of the movie. While the issues of production design are somewhat bland, thee are forgivable and if they were the only issues I had and someone said I was reading too far into the movie then perhaps I could get past that. What I cannot forgive is this script. As I said at the beginning of this review (or maybe rant might be more appropriate for the first half), this movie began as a poor and ill-conceived idea, and was not developed from that. There was no desire to deviate from the formula of a standard adventure plot. There was no desire to find a way to develop and build on existing characters or create new ones. What the writers seemed to think was sufficient was a great deal of fan service and irritating moments where characters almost literally smirk at the camera as lines are delivered or pointless tidbits of information given out. It's just...dull. There is absolutely nothing to it and therefore as a movie fundamentally fails at a basic level. There might be cool effects or relatively fun action, but there is no rewatchability to this. What this is is a series of clips which you might want to watch on YouTube as opposed to having to sit through the other drab 2 hours. Ultimately, this is not only pointless, but it is utterly dull. Is it the worst Star Wars movie? No. Is it a particularly enjoyable movie or well-written? No. Does it have a point? No. It just exists, and it seems that is something I and the rest of the fanbase will simply have to live with. It's just a shame at the end of the day that there was potential for this story, and yet we ended up with something which is quite remarkably unremarkable.
Pros
Some decent performances
Reliable effects work
Some fun action beats
Cons
Formulaic and predictable plot and structure
Fan service over development
Weakens existing characters and introduces even weaker ones
Bland cinematography and costume design
Irritating winks to the camera
A tonal mess
Pointless and ultimately boring
Rating: 3/10
Original Release Date: May 25th, 2018
Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Thandie Newton, Jon Favreau, Joonas Suotamo, and Paul Bettany
