First, a little background.
During this films early development, it was initially slated to be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The comedic directing duo behind The Lego Movie and the recent 21 Jumpstreet movies. They were given a script penned by the legendary writer of The Empire Strikes Back, Lawrence Kasden, and his son Jonathan Kasden. However, as soon as the directing pair got to work, things didn't look so well. Lord & Miller wanted to make a total goofball comedy as that was what they were accustomed to making. As such, they encouraged as much over-the-top silliness from the cast and insisted upon lots of on-set improvisation. This rubbed the original writers, as well as producer Kathlene Kennedy, the wrong way, as they wanted a more traditional adventure movie with some comedy thrown in for good measure. So they all approached Lord & Miller and insisted that they stick to the script. Needless to say, Lord & Miller didn't like the "restrictions" they were placed under and promptly left the project, causing the studio to hire a replacement director. They found one in Ron Howard, mostly known for A Beautiful Mind and The Da-Vinci Code, who then proceeded to reshoot over 70% of the film. Also, they hired an acting coach to help the cast unlearn what Lord & Miller forced upon them during their initial run.
So, after all that, how did the actual movie turn out? Well, a lot better than it could have been, but still not entirely great.
The story centers on the early days of the greatest scoundrel in the Galaxy, Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich). In his youth, Solo had a lady friend named Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke), more on her in a minute, who was taken away from him. He vowed to become a great pilot and make enough money to come back for her. After dropping out of the Imperial Academy, Solo meets up with a team of thieves & smugglers who happen to be working on a big score. They reluctantly agree to let Solo join the gang, and we see just how Solo became the man he is today. Along the way, we learn about his friendship with Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), we see the Millenium Falcon in its early stages, and, most importantly, we look at the beginnings of Solo's relationship with his best friend of all, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo).
For the most part, the film is quite stable. The characters are fun without being entirely fascinating, the action is thrilling and looks wonderfully realized, and most of the acting is very entertaining. Especially Alden Ehrenreich as Solo. He manages to put in just enough of a good Harrison Ford impression to remind us of who this character is but still manages to put in enough of his own style to indeed make this iteration of the role his own.
Even so, the MVP award must go to the supporting Droid character L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). She gets to have a lot of great lines, is the most sympathetic and entertaining character, and even gets the opportunity to comment on how Droids deal with the property/personhood they seem to struggle with. She is a rare kind of original character that is always welcome in a Star Wars movie.
However, as you can probably guess from this films troubled production history, it is not without some flaws.
Starting with director Ron Howard. While he is still technically a competent director who can handle actors very well, he seems to have gone downhill when it comes to visual style, especially with the color palette. Most of his films as of late have ranged from mildly ugly to "what the heck am I looking at" ugly, mostly due to his colors continually looking overly washed out. Like a watercolor painting that got rained on. The most extreme example of this phenomenon is with is film In The Heart of The Sea, which looks like it was photographed through a half-filled Coka-Cola bottle. Not to mention the pacing of the movie is faster than it probably should be. Though, to be fair, it's more likely because of the reshoots.
The cinematography is just terrible to me. This film was photographed by Bradford Young, late of Arrival, A Most Violent Year, and Selma. His lighting style is either aggressively dark or intensely bright with no in-betweens. At the very least I was still able to see enough of the scene to make out the action, but most of the time I found myself struggling to adjust between the two extremes of lighting within the film. I mean, there's having a dark style, and then there's "I can't afford a light kit."
Finally, there's Emilia Clarke. Not only is her character not as compelling or fully developed as she really deserves to be, but Clarke has still yet to convince me that she is a versitile actress. She is not really terrible as she is just kind of one-note. To be fair, it is not entirely her fault. The writers didn't seem to have put as much time or effort into developing her character, and Emilia Clarke may have had a harder time dealing with the transition of directors. I should emphasize that this is pure speculation on my part. Even so, if she is capable of performing a wider varity of emotions and character, I have still yet to see it. Hopfully she will get a better chance to shine in the future.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is not a perfect film by any means, but it is a fun one and relishes in its freedom to be an exciting and occasionally silly adventure. It's a decent distraction to tide us all over until the more interesting Star Wars movies start coming out over the next few years. If you're in the mood a decent distraction, check this one out.
Is this movie worth seeing?
Maybe.
Is it worth seeing in theaters?
Maybe.
Why?
While it is a substantial journey down nostalgia lane and a fresh adventure, its shortcomings may be too much to look past for some viewers. If you can see past the dim cinematography and eclectic pacing, it might be worth your time.
Ladies & gentlmen, I am TheNorm, thank you for reading.
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