How Solo: A Star Wars Story Took Me From No Hope To A New Hope

My expectations for Solo: A Star Wars Story were in the Rancor pit and when it began to play, they weren’t particularly lifted at all. The acting in the opening scene seemed pretty stilted and weird and the dialogue didn’t help. It felt like the worst parts of the prequel trilogy for a good five minutes. But then we were introduced to some giant worm lady that lives in a big puddle and runs a huge crime syndicate on the planet Corellia and oh boy the movie truly picked up from their. The practical effects they used to bring said worm woman to life were spectacular, they were reminiscent of the original trilogy without looking out of place in a modern film. The way Han escapes from her is partly by pretending a rock is a thermal detonator and no one really believing him all that much. This silly little plan got me back on board even more than the worm because it’s just the kind of making it up as he goes along Nonsense I expect Han Solo to pull off. The movie then decided to throw me off again, like a bucking Tauntaun.

I was in, I was so in and ready for a nostalgic, retro romp but then they had to go and do the name thing. No movie should ever do the name thing. It’s always awkward and I hate it. I don’t want to spoil anything, just in case there are people among you that don’t feel as strongly as I do about the name thing, so I shan’t detail the scene as I wish I could but there is a moment where Han is given part of his name and I’ve never cringed so hard at a movie in my life. It’s so bad. In a similar instance, Han basically spells out for Chewie that he’s going to call him Chewie from now on because Chewbacca is too long. That’s such a redundant, unnecessary line, just have him start calling him Chewie, we don’t need it explained. So the movie and I had a rocky start but only due to a couple of moments. The trench stuff on Mindon is exactly what Rogue One should’ve been so I very much enjoyed that, also the performance of Han by Alden Ehrenreich is pretty solid as are the other characters and action but it’s when we meet Paul Bettany’s character that the movie kicks back into gear for me. Bettany puts in such a fantastic performance, it was great to see how much fun his character was having just being a crime lord and a nasty bloke.

From here we see everything you want to see in the Han Solo movie, a game of Sabacc with a perfect Lando Calrissian as portrayed by Donald Glover, we see Kessel and an intense scene where Han completes the infamous Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. Lando’s sassy British robot L3 is much less annoying than K2-SO so that’s a bonus as well. Nothing in this film was very surprising at all, it was quite safe, but it was fun. It looked good, the performances and action were solid and it had everything you’d ever want in a Han Solo adventure and you know what? With the surprise cameo at the end from a certain fan favourite character and the hint to a sequel covering Han’s continued adventures perhaps with him and a new crew working for Jabba, I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel. This goose has teeth and has sparked a bit of hope in my heart for the future of the Star Wars spin off movies.