Review- Solo: A Star Wars Story
Before I get into the review, an announcement. I now have a Letterboxd account so for all of you who have it, you can find me at https://letterboxd.com/QuiteNerdyBlog/ but if you don't have it, it's a solid little social networking site based around films, it's worth checking out. You can find out how I feel about films I haven't reviewed, what I'm watching and I'm slowly building up a collection of lists there. So if you really need more of my film opinions, follow that link! Now, to Solo.
As the title kind of gives away, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a story set in the Star Wars universe about famous smuggler/rogue/scruffy looking nerfherder Han Solo. Like Rogue One, it's a prequel story set before the events of the original trilogy which tells the story of how Han Solo became the character we all came to love. How did he get his blaster? How did he meet Chewie? How did he get his surname? We find out all those answers and more in the course of a story that's essentially just a mediocre heist movie in which he must work together with some more scoundrels to do something or other at the spice mines on Kessel which means, yes, he has to do the Kessel run. As you can probably already tell, there's a lot of stuff explaining things we've either seen or heard in previous films and it could well be the worst part of the film. Much of it is predictable and while there is one neat moment of subversion, there's a lot that plays out exactly as you expect it, that is, aside from one very unexpected character appearance. Still, the moment where Han gets the name "Solo" could well go down as one of the very most cringe worthy moments I've ever seen on screen.
Acting wise the film is... Not as bad as I thought but also not as good. Alden Ehrenreich plays the titular Han Solo and is completely fine. He doesn't tarnish the legacy laid out by Harrison Ford but neither does he really do anything new with the character. On the other end of the spectrum, Donald Glover is sadly just okay as Lando. This is a man who can do damn near anything and while he has easily the funniest line in the film, it feels like it comes from Glover himself, not Lando. The rest of the cast gives forgettable performances in forgettable roles. Emelia Clarke is love interest lady. Woody Harrelson is mentor man. Paul Bettany is a bit villainous. Phoebe Waller-Bridges is a vaguely comedic droid. Thandie Newton is technically in this film. Yeah, I think I'm done with talking performances.
There's one major compliment I want to give to the film and it's that it doesn't feel like a film where the director changed halfway through, which is exactly what happened. Don't get me wrong, the film still doesn't succeed but it isn't for those reasons. In fact, having now seen the film, I think original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller would have also made a poor film. Instead, we're lead by Ron Howard who is great at making fairly generic movies and occasional great films. Shockingly, this sits with the former. At no point in the film did I really care about any of the action or plot. I'm not sure if it's because I know where it leads to or if there wasn't enough character development but I was numb. Also, and this may just be me, but at times the film was way too dark. Not tonally, I'm a Black Mirror fan after all. No, the visuals were almost impossible to grasp for much of the film and I found it a nightmare to work out what it was we were meant to be seeing. Like I said, may have been a problem just with me or with the screening I was at but the visuals were just guff.
I can understand people who come out of Solo and have had a good time. It's a perfectly passable film and an okay Star Wars film. It's just a film that left me entirely cold. Some of the parts I thought would be bad weren't (the consistency of the tone) but some of the bits I was looking forward to (Glover as Lando) were somewhat underwhelming. For me, it was a completely mediocre time that left me fairly drained, which is why I give Solo: A Star Wars Story: A Clunky Title a
As the title kind of gives away, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a story set in the Star Wars universe about famous smuggler/rogue/scruffy looking nerfherder Han Solo. Like Rogue One, it's a prequel story set before the events of the original trilogy which tells the story of how Han Solo became the character we all came to love. How did he get his blaster? How did he meet Chewie? How did he get his surname? We find out all those answers and more in the course of a story that's essentially just a mediocre heist movie in which he must work together with some more scoundrels to do something or other at the spice mines on Kessel which means, yes, he has to do the Kessel run. As you can probably already tell, there's a lot of stuff explaining things we've either seen or heard in previous films and it could well be the worst part of the film. Much of it is predictable and while there is one neat moment of subversion, there's a lot that plays out exactly as you expect it, that is, aside from one very unexpected character appearance. Still, the moment where Han gets the name "Solo" could well go down as one of the very most cringe worthy moments I've ever seen on screen.
Acting wise the film is... Not as bad as I thought but also not as good. Alden Ehrenreich plays the titular Han Solo and is completely fine. He doesn't tarnish the legacy laid out by Harrison Ford but neither does he really do anything new with the character. On the other end of the spectrum, Donald Glover is sadly just okay as Lando. This is a man who can do damn near anything and while he has easily the funniest line in the film, it feels like it comes from Glover himself, not Lando. The rest of the cast gives forgettable performances in forgettable roles. Emelia Clarke is love interest lady. Woody Harrelson is mentor man. Paul Bettany is a bit villainous. Phoebe Waller-Bridges is a vaguely comedic droid. Thandie Newton is technically in this film. Yeah, I think I'm done with talking performances.
There's one major compliment I want to give to the film and it's that it doesn't feel like a film where the director changed halfway through, which is exactly what happened. Don't get me wrong, the film still doesn't succeed but it isn't for those reasons. In fact, having now seen the film, I think original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller would have also made a poor film. Instead, we're lead by Ron Howard who is great at making fairly generic movies and occasional great films. Shockingly, this sits with the former. At no point in the film did I really care about any of the action or plot. I'm not sure if it's because I know where it leads to or if there wasn't enough character development but I was numb. Also, and this may just be me, but at times the film was way too dark. Not tonally, I'm a Black Mirror fan after all. No, the visuals were almost impossible to grasp for much of the film and I found it a nightmare to work out what it was we were meant to be seeing. Like I said, may have been a problem just with me or with the screening I was at but the visuals were just guff.
I can understand people who come out of Solo and have had a good time. It's a perfectly passable film and an okay Star Wars film. It's just a film that left me entirely cold. Some of the parts I thought would be bad weren't (the consistency of the tone) but some of the bits I was looking forward to (Glover as Lando) were somewhat underwhelming. For me, it was a completely mediocre time that left me fairly drained, which is why I give Solo: A Star Wars Story: A Clunky Title a
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ReplyDeletebounced on my boys scruffy looking nerfherder to this for hours. my favourite part of the film was where the SJW robot ranted about not shaving her armpits to prevent conforming to societal norms, so empowering!
ReplyDeleteanyway don't forget the government is always watching one love anonymous over and out