Harrison who?
Solo: A Star Wars Story took me by surprise in a way I didn’t expect.
I walked into Solo: A Star Wars Story with about as low of expectations as I’ve had when it comes to a Star Wars movie. Here Disney was taking on one of the most beloved characters in movie history in a standalone film that no one really asked for. Not only did they have to figure out how to cast a character that Harrison Ford made his own, but they were doing so just six months after they released The Last Jedi.
What made this experience a bit different as well was that there wasn’t a plethora of conversation around the movie, at least from my side. I see every Star Wars movie on opening night with Unprofessionals co-founder Nathan Page and we usually discuss these movies to a pulp before and after.
But as we were walking into Solo on Thursday we realized we literally hadn’t talked about this movie other than to briefly express our concerns and wonder why Disney was even touching this property. Turns out, not discussing it was probably a good thing for our enjoyment of the movie.
The biggest question for me as I sat in the theater watching previews for all of the crappy movies that are coming out this year was how Alden Ehrenreich, once I remembered his name, was going to do impersonating Harrison’s Ford Han Solo.
That only stayed in my mind for about 20 minutes because at some point I forgot about comparing the two and just enjoyed Alden Ehrenreich’s version of Han Solo. He was genuinely enjoyable as Han Solo and I didn’t really see that coming.
Again, I’ve only seen this movie once, and my opinion will likely change after I see it again a couple more times. But by the middle of the movie Nathan and I both weren’t thinking about Harrison Ford and were simply enjoying Donald Glover and Alden Ehrenreic doing their thing.
In no way was Alden better than Harrison Ford, and I don’t even know if that’s a valuable conversation to have. Because first off it’s ridiculous, but second it didn’t matter for this movie and that’s unexpected.
I would still say they didn’t need to make this movie. But now that it’s here, I can say it really is a genuinely enjoyable movie. The characters were electric and enjoyable throughout. Emilia Clarke and Woody Harrelson were both welcomed cast members that I didn’t see coming.
Glover was the best part of the movie, and I think that was probably obvious before the movie even began. Simply from the trailers and knowing how talented Glover was you knew he could do Lando complete justice in his own way.
Emilia Clarke was really good throughout the movie. If you put her in the Woody Harrelson role it’s probably the same movie. Although I don’t know how well the writing served her character. If you take her role out of the movie, I still probably come away with the same opinions of it. That’s not to say she didn’t do a good job, I just don’t know if we needed her role in the way it was constructed. Maybe we did, I think as this movie ages it’ll be easier to tell if the relationship with Han was actually a valuable addition to the movie.
Despite individual problems with some of the characters on small levels, the movie was pretty enjoyable and at the very least cleared the bar for what could have been reasonably expected in telling a Han Solo story without Harrison Ford. Glover steals the show, Ehrenreic is solid, Darth Maul’s cameo is neat, and they didn’t overwhelm us with fan service.
It’ll take some time before I can properly place Solo: A Star Wars Story in how I rank Star Wars movies, but what I can say is that it was a genuinely enjoyable summer movie. Nathan went a step further and as we talked after the showing came out the gate flying with the heat that this could be the best new Star Wars movie, although I think he said the same thing after The Last Jedi so who really knows with him.
Bottom line is go see the movie, it’s a really good popcorn movie that doesn’t crap the bed. A worthwhile experience if you dig good action movies.
