REVIEW #32 Solo (2018)

Solo is a film directed by Ron Howard about the popular Star Wars character Han Solo during his younger years, as he gets his first taste of the criminal underworld. We see his first love, his first heist and of course how he acquires the famous Millennium Falcon.

CAST & THE ACTING (8.5/10)

Contrary to most people’s beliefs, I actually liked the casting of this film and thought the acting was actually pretty good! Alden Ehrenreich does well to bring a younger, maybe more naive Han Solo to life which was really enjoyable. Emilia Clark plays his love interest Qi’ra, Woody Harrelson plays Beckett and Paul Bettany plays the villainous Dryden Vos, all delivering strong performances. A casting I think was perfect was Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian! The dynamic between him and Alden really complimented the relationship between Han and Lando on screen. So I have given a strong score of 8 here.

PLOT & THE STORYLINE (8.5/10)

I really liked the storyline because it introduced the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate and gave us another glimpse at a fan favourite villain from the phantom menace! However it just provided so much clarity on how all these characters from the original trilogy met and how these relationships formed. It combined nostalgia with excitement which was really good. Granted the plot doesn’t include any Jedi characters which may put some fans off but I think it achieved what it was meant to! Which was to show how Han Solo came to be the funny, yet arrogant and at times cold hearted character we see in the original films. The plot also sets up further spin off films or series, the ending especially because now I can’t wait to see Darth Maul pop up again in future projects.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS (8.5/10)

Visually, I think this film was great! One moment in particular is when they complete the Kessel Run, the visual effects were outstanding and it really painted a picture of what space travel would be like. Even the scenes towards the beginning of the film where Han is a soldier and he first meets Chewbacca, the cinematography is so well done and makes it all seem so realistic which is what you want from a Star Wars film. This film did have a large budget, which is no surprise with Disney producing it, so you would expect the special effects to be of a high standard but I still think it deserves a strong 8.5 here.

OVERALL (8.5/10)

This might be an unpopular opinion amongst the Star Wars community and film critics but I really liked this film. I think rotten tomatoes (69%) and IMDB (6.9/10) are very harsh for giving such low scores. This film was funny, provided some well needed backstory to these original characters and created so many opportunities for future spin off projects. We even got to see the return of the fan favourite Phantom Menace Villain! So I would definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, don’t listen to the google reviews and just give it a go! 

Thanks for reading!

Callan