I just stepped out of the theatre and I'm ready to write this review for you all. So, let me start off by saying, this movie is nothing like the other Star Wars movies. I was expecting something like Rogue One, but as soon as they started making jokes I knew it was going to be something different. I liked it though, I did. It was action packed, quite funny and a bit romantic. I dig it. The action scenes were probably my favourite thing about this movie, those were very well done.

Alden Ehrenreich did Han Solo proud. I didn't really know the actor before this, but he's good! Sometimes it almost felt like I was listening to Harrison Ford. It was great to see him and Chewbacca together en find out how their relationship started in the first place. I really enjoyed seeing them bonding and all that. Woody Harrelson never ceases to amaze me, to be honest. He is a brilliant actor if you ask me. I felt like his character stayed a bit in the background throughout the movie but I think Tobias Beckett sure made an impact on Han. Talking about making an impact, let talk about Qi'Ra (probably the coolest way to write Kyra). First off, I adore Emilia Clarke. I think she's a great actress and she's absolutely gorgeous. I had to get used to the idea of her in a space movie but she did very well. Her character is still a bit of a blur, to be honest, but I think Qi'Ra could be an interesting character to explore further. Donald Glover as Lando is perfectly cast. They truly did a great job. My brother said, "I thought he was the son of the original Lando". I think when people say that, you've done a pretty great job. I liked L3 as well, she was a bit much sometimes but she brought some humour to the movie.

Overall it sure was a fun movie to watch. It all looked very beautiful and the special effects were great. The only thing that bothered me was some of the creatures they created. I think they could've been "more real". I don't know if that makes sense, but maybe you notice it too when you're watching the movie. It could also just be me, I don't know, it confuses me a bit. I really liked getting a glimpse of Chewbacca's story and a closer look at the Millenium Falcon. That's one great ship with way too many buttons, isn't it?

I enjoyed Solo: A Star Wars Story and I'm going to rate it with a solid 7. I'm pretty sure there's more where this movie came from so I will be waiting patiently till then.

World Premiere Review:

If I can sum up it up in one word, it's a giant "meh." I liked all of the new Star Wars up until this point, but this one was so forced. It didn't help that they had to reshoot more than half the movie with a different director, albeit with the great Ron Howard.

First problem, no one can fill Harrison Ford's shoes, it's impossible. The new characters are boring and forgettable. Still, Donald Glover just nails Lando...they should just do a Lando stand alone movie next time. Chewie is also awesome and funny as usual. [spoiler] I should also mention Malla is cannon now from the Christmas Special? Just speculating that's who he kisses with when he frees his people. Lumpy will probably show up in Solo 2. I saw George Lucas shift uncomfortably in the theater a couple seats over during that scene which was amusing. [/spoiler] The story is just ok, it's a little slow and boring. At least the action sequences are fun.

Here's my biggest peeve: L3-37 is the most forced, obnoxious Star Wars character since Jar-Jar. [spoiler] I was so happy when this Social Justice Robot, who is supposed to be Lando's co-pilot, gets destroyed close to the end. This attempt to be "relevant to the times" sticks out like a sore thumb and the actress voicing it made me wince every time she spoke. Hopefully that's the last we hear or see of it. [/spoiler]

Finally, Emilia Clarke's character has the depth of a sheet of cardboard. Worst of all though was the twist at the end where [spoiler] fucking Darth Maul shows up now post Episode 3. She is working with him and it was so cringey and shoe-horned in, I'm so tired of him not being dead. I tolerated it in the Clone Wars with spider-maul, but he just needs to go away. [/spoiler]

[7.6/10] *Solo* has the scruffy confidence to be its own movie. Of the ten *Star Wars* films, it’s the only so far not to tie directly into the events of the main saga. That alone makes it interesting and laudable as the first real cinematic step of *Star Wars* ceasing to be a film series and starting to be a “cinematic universe.”

Which isn’t to say the film isn’t closely connected to its predecessors. *Solo* reveals how Han and Chewbacca first became a team. It features the first meeting between its title character in Lando Calrissian. It even shows how Han ended up with the Millenium Falcon. And that’s setting aside references to a “gangster on Tatooine” and hints of a growing rebellion and familiar characters popping up in unexpected places. Make no mistake -- the film is certainly interested in reminding its viewers where all these characters will be in ten years time.

But it’s also good enough not to be about that. *Solo* is part-heist flick and part coming-of-age film. It’s more interested in Han’s big adventure in this movie and how he gets to be the sarcastic smuggler we meet in *A New Hope* than it is in how he fits into the broader *Star Wars* Universe, to the film’s benefit. The promise of these “Star Wars stories” is that they can use the diverse, elaborate world that George Lucas and his collaborators created to spin all kinds of yarns untethered to the concerns of the Skywalker family. *Solo* still anchors its story on familiar faces, but tells its own tale, and comes out the better for it.

The big problem with *Solo* is that it has two modes: (a.) irreverent action/adventure flick filled with colorful characters and (b.) semi-serious interrogation of What Han Solo Is™, and it’s much more entertaining and effective at the former than the latter. The script, penned by *Empire Strikes Back* scribe Lawrence Kasdan and his son Jonathan, does a superb job at introducing all these figures, old and new, and then letting them bounce off on another in the confines of a rickety old ship and a job pulled at various rough-and-tumble locales. But it falters when trying to use that setup to get at its title character’s true nature.

The film’s thesis on that front is a solid one -- that he is unavoidably rough around the edges, and wants to be “bad,” but deep down he’s good. That is, after all, his essential arc in the Original Trilogy, where a seemingly good-for-nothing smuggler is revealed to have a heart of gold and sympathies to the cause of the Rebellion, or at least his friends. *Solo* retraces that arc a bit, and weakens Han’s progression in the saga films a little in the course of that, but the Kasdans *get* Han: the talk that’s bigger than his paydirt, the cocksure improvisational confidence, and the innate goodness that peaks through his rough-hewn if charming exterior which he’ll deny to the end.

The film just does a much better job of showing us those qualities through Han’s actions and attitude than in having various other characters ham-fistedly comment on it and wax rhapsodic about who he’s been and who he’ll be.

The best parts work, as they must, thanks to Alden Ehrenreich, who takes over the role originated by Harrison Ford in 1977’s *A New Hope*. Following in those iconic footsteps is a tall order, but Ehrenreich makes it work. He doesn't stoop to doing an impression of Ford, short of a few conspicuous mannerisms, but still manages to capture the character’s rakish charm and overconfident, anything goes spirit. Yes, it’s a little hard to grok that this guy becomes 70s era Harrison Ford in ten years, but Ehrenreich absolutely works as Young Han, and the movie wouldn’t work at all without that.

The other characters that populate the film vary a bit more, but are largely fun and entertaining. Woody Harrelson’s turn as Beckett sees him filling the weathered good ol’ boy niche he’s carved out for years now. Emilia Clarke does fine as Qi'ra, who manages to be a little bit more than just Han’s love interest, but only a little. Donald Glover’s charisma carries the day as he inhabits Young Lando, but occasionally he comes across like Glover doing his best Lando impersonation than a fully convincing character (though his chemistry with Ehrenreich sparkles over that nicely). And there’s plenty of other fun, if seemingly disposable side characters, like Paul Bettany’s genteel but menacing villain, Dryden Vos, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a delightfully irrepressible droid revolutionary named L3. Even relative newcomer Joonas Suotamo brings character beyond the fur to Chewbacca, alongside *Star Wars* sound designer Ben Burtt’s traditional groans and growls.

When *Solo* deploys these characters well, it’s a hell of an action-filled romp. Seeing Han’s *Oliver Twist*-esque origins blossom into his up-and-down efforts to live on the fringes of both the law and the galaxy are fun and thrilling. The movie takes the viewer to new, scrappier corners of the galaxy, packing the frame with wild new creatures and settings that help make *Star Wars* feel big and diverse again.

Han’s goals and wants are clear; his compatriots are well-if-quickly sketched, and the set pieces are nicely chaotic and spontaneous, as befits the way any plan involving Solo should shake out. The pacing is off here and there, and certain action sequences extend to the point of exhaustion (likely a casualty of the hand off from the nixed boundary-pushers Phil Lord & Christopher Miller to steady hand Ron Howard). But the core setting of the film -- a band of well-traveled and wannabe outlaws does a job with pitfalls and smart remarks -- works like gangbusters.

Then, the final act hits, and the film stops being fun and starts being serious. There’s double-crosses on double-crosses, heavily sign-posted character-defining choices, and cliché, ponderous statements about who Han is supposed to be or can’t be or might have been that one time (we’re not really sure).

*Solo*, like its protagonist, has its heart in the right place here. It’s laudable to try to turn this adventure into something revealing about one of the franchise’s biggest characters and not just an empty-calorie escapade. But the film can’t support the weight of that introspection (not to mention all of that clunky extrospection) and becomes bogged down when trying to unravel both its less-compelling plot threads and its character study in one big convoluted finale.

But one thing is for sure. This movie is not about the Skywalkers. Despite an eyebrow-raising tie-in, it is not about the broader Star Wars Universe. It’s about Han Solo, and It is, for the first time, a genuinely independent Star Wars story. For most of its run time, *Solo* is a standalone (if franchise-winking) adventure from the days when Han was still cutting his teeth as a smuggler and outlaw. The film has its problems when it departs from that, but still shows the benefits, and the fun, of Star Wars movies that follow the lead of Solo himself and aim to go it alone.

I have to admit, I was unsure about this film before going in. Why? Director Ron Howard. While he's the director of some near classics, Rush and Parenthood, he's also the bland and workmanlike director of the crap that is the Da Vinci Code borefest. So was he the man for a Star Wars movie? To be honest, it wasn't as boring as I expected (sorry Ron), but it did little to stand out either. It ticked all the boxes we expect from the story - Han meets Chewie; Han does the Kessel Run; Han wins the Falcon - and while fun, it was a tad predictable. However, Alden did a great job as Han, and Donald Glover absolutely nailed the part of Lando. The action was good, though there was sometimes too much of it, and I wished it would slow down a little to delve further into Han's backstory. I was tired while watching the film, so my overall opinion may change, and admittedly, I would like to see more of Han Junior in future films, not that this is likely to happen.

Oh, and I was split down the middle about the return of a classic Star Wars character, though it did add some intrigue within the overall Star Wars universe.

From the moment this movie was announced, I had zero interest in watching it. Now, a friend of mine came by with the BluRay, so - what the heck, right ? Nothing too lose. Should have listened to my gut feeling.

Han Solo is not only my favorite SW character but one off my favorite characters at all. Harrison Fords portrayal made me a fan off both, the actor and the character. So the bar was very, very high. For me Ehrenreich doesn't have it. I don't see Solo in him and making him say some well known quotes is not enough. And the love struck young man that does everthing to get back to his girl - that is not Han. Yeah, I'll get it. It's a younger version of the same person but I don't see it. It's the Disney-Love-Story. The rest of the characters are shallow and not well crafted. It does not matter who plays them if there is not much to play with. And don't even get me started about that stupid L-3. The political correctness installation that every movie nowadays seems to must have.

What about the story ? It felt like the writer had a checklist he had to work off. Han getting off Corellia, Han meeting Chewie, the Kessel run, winning the Falcon - everything the fan wanted to see for a long time. Problem is, it is all cobbled together by a very generic blockbuster story. It is also very convenient. Han trying for years to get back to Qi'ra only to meet her by a chance encounter. It also lacks logic. For example, when Han released the container at the raid it smashed into the mountain with a giant explosion, taking down said mountain. Yet, only minutes before the whole train went down the valley and nothing seemed to have happened. Another example, at the end when Beckett left with Chewie, how can Han already be there? The ship is in the distance, there is no short cut yet he stands there fresh as the early morning. Convienient writing again. It's a movie, a fanatsy, but a little effort would my much appreciated. Plus there is the biggest prequel problem there ever is - there is nothing at stake. You know the hero is not going to die. You need something really good to cover that fact and it just isn't there. Pulling out Maul at the end feels like a desperate move, more so that a lot of people will not understand how he can even be there in the first place and what he has to do in a Solo movie. That is Disney saying: go and watch the other stuff we put out And Han's choices leading to the start off the rebellion is, again, exactly the kind of thing that I would expect from Disney.

As you can gather I did not enjoy this, not as a SW movie, not even as a scifi action adventure in general. And I seem to not be alone in that. The Marvel formula does not work here at all. I don't know what the plan is going forward with the SW franchise but I know I won't be a part of it.

Please keep in mind, again, comments are personal opinions. You like the movie, I am happy for you and enjoy the next.