Movie Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story (Spoiler Free)

So far, Solo has not been doing well in theaters. It had a disappointing opening weekend and is not predicted to do much better next weekend. A combination of reported production problems and a lack of Harrison Ford are probably what kept people away. Not me though. When I sat down in the movie theater, I was hesitant for the reasons I just listed. Walking out of the theater, I was pleasantly surprised to find I actually did enjoy the movie.

                Solo is not ground breaking and is definitely not a culturally defining movie like New Hope was. It would be difficult to watch without background knowledge from the original trilogy. However, it did a better job of portraying a new plot within the franchise than The Force Awakens did. It also stayed in the tradition of the original trilogy by focusing the plot more on the characters and less on elaborate action sequences (though there were several of these).

                Han Solo being played by Alden Ehrenreich instead of Harrison Ford was hard to get used to. Once I accepted that the movie I would have preferred is impossible, I enjoyed it well enough. Learning about Han Solo’s background was actually fun and gave him more depth than we have seen before. Let’s face it, as much as we love his outlaw turned good-guy character, Han Solo is a bit one-dimensional in other movies. In Solo we get a better understanding of his motivations and experiences which give an interesting context to him in the other movies.

                WoodyHarrelson who plays Solo’s mentor, Tobias Beckett, in many ways carries this movie. Beckett is crucial in keeping the plot moving and Harrelson has the outlaw swagger that Ehrenreich sometimes misses. This was a particularly good casting choice and is a large part of why I found the movie enjoyable.

                While I would prefer a scenario involving time machines and a younger Harrison Ford playing Han Solo, what we got was not a bad movie. There are flaws and it does not stand alone well, but it certainly deserves to be doing better in box offices than it currently is.