* That’s the rating for the fans, for the rest of you it’s Worth Seeing.
It seems the non-episodic movies for Star Wars are the great ones (Rogue One) and Solo seems to perpetuate this. I loved Force and Last but Rogue and Solo really deliver on my expectations. What are my expectations? Well-paced action, dialog that flows, practical or CG effects capable of aging well and little Easter eggs to keep hunting for so I will watch the movie multiple times.
Obviously, this is the story of Han Solo about a decade before he gave an old man, a kid and two droids a lift to Alderaan. Much about his past is answered through the movie: how he met Chewbacca; how he met Lando; how he became a smuggler; did he really join the Imperial Navy?; and most importantly, how did he come to own the iconic Millennium Falcon. It’s also a heist movie for the non-fans with all the questions mostly surrounding the plot and execution.
Alden Ehrenreich does a good job channeling Harrison Ford but Donald Glover as Lando is the real standout. Woody Harrelson is great at the veteran showing Han the ropes and I’d say the real breakout character is L3-37, an uppity droid and Lando’s co-pilot played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Obviously, there are cool nods to us diehards who follow the cartoons Clones Wars and Rebels, namely with the surprise ending.
I forgot to take my notebook to log the Alamo Extras. Most were the expected jokes regarding the horrible 1978 TV special, pranks on people and a collection of other rogues people love from past films.
I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would.
I think what contributed to the enjoyment of this movie was my ignoring the hype machine, good or bad.
Traditionally, I will watch the movie trailers, for me the movie trailers are part of the magic, but as the movies get closer, they tend to reveal much more plot-wise, or give away locations or actions. I do not want to see that much…stick to the trailer.
I think Alden did a great job as Solo. Glover was great as Lando, good job with the accent. And Emilia was fantastic as Qi’Ra…the whole cast was great. And like my complaint about sharing too much about the movies…this is all I will say. A-