Rogue One
2016
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Star Wars. Advertise With Us. Young Han Solo finds adventure when he joins forces with a gang of galactic smugglers and a 190-year-old Wookie named Chewbacca. Indebted to the gangster Dryden Vos ...
- (484)
- Ron Howard
- PG-13
- Alden Ehrenreich
As unnecessary prequels go, "Solo: A Star Wars Story" isn't bad. It's not great, either, though—and despite spirited performances, knockabout humor, and a few surprising or rousing bits, there's something a bit too programmed about the whole thing. It has certain marks to hit, and it makes absolutely sure you know that it's hitting them.
Solo: A Star Wars Story doesn't advance the legacy of the franchise or even make Han Solo more beloved; quite the opposite. Han Solo is less interesting by the end. Full Review ...
- “Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh…everything’s perfectly all right now."
- Solo: A Star Wars Story Photos
- Verdict
By Jim Vejvoda
Updated: May 18, 2018 10:20 pm
Posted: May 15, 2018 9:00 pm
While it never quite justifies its reason to exist, Solo: A Star Wars Story offers enough pulpy fun and galaxy far, far away entertainment value to diminish any bad feeling one may have had about it heading into release.
Solo – both the movie and this new iteration of Harrison Ford’s classic character, now played by Alden Ehrenreich – skates by on charm, breezy irreverence, and a just-right degree of Star Wars fan service. But while it gets the trappings and appearances right, Solo never delivers on the promise of finding out why Han became who he was in A New Hope. It just explains how he got his stuff.
One of the most memorable aspects of the character from the original trilogy was the way in which he believably evolved from an out-for-himself scoundrel and mercenary to a hero of the Rebel Alliance worthy of Princess Leia; this origin movie delivers no such satisfying arc of redemption or fall from grace. (Imagine if Casino Royale hadn’t quite seen the evolution of James Bond all the way through to its bitter end.) Its story holds precious few surprises and the title character ends this film as pretty much the same person he was when we met him at the beginning — without quite becoming the person Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi found and pulled out of a wretched hive of scum and villainy on Tatooine.
And, finally, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) might get his biggest and best role yet in the franchise, now a true supporting character in his own right here rather than just Han’s sidekick or glorified pet. Chewie has his own goals to reach in this story instead of just being in service of the other characters’ agendas, and he even gets one of the movie’s biggest laughs.
Solo: A Star Wars Story features some ably executed action scenes, with the key one being a train heist about midway through. This extended sequence calls to mind the westerns, serials, and World War II movies that all helped inspire George Lucas’s original Star Wars. The film also continues the franchise’s renewed interest in practical effects, making this once again feel like a lived-in world populated by “real” creatures and “working” vehicles and droids.
Solo: A Star Wars Story commits to being a charming and fun exercise in repackaging nostalgia and pre-owned protagonists. It’s just too bad its script never fully committed to seeing through Han’s arc — and those characters who are supposed to have shaped him into being the iconic version we all know and love — to its preordained end.
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May 15, 2018 · Before he returned as an avenging patriarch in “The Force Awakens,” Han Solo was the cool uncle of the “Star Wars” saga. You knew the guy had a lot of crazy stories to tell about gamblers ...
- Ron Howard
May 25, 2018 · Solo: A Star Wars Story hits all the expected Han Solo origin story beats, delivering a solidly entertaining experience with few surprises. Solo: A Star Wars Story is the second of Lucasfilm's anthology movies, released as part of the reinvigorated franchise since the studio was acquired by Disney in 2012.
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May 15, 2018 · It’s no accident the posters for Solo: A Star Wars Story convey a retro, ‘ 70s-tinged vibe. Especially when following in the turbo-charged footsteps of last winter’s The Last Jedi and other ...
