You can NOT listen to the critics.
I watched Solo: A Star Wars Story and it was actually far better than most of the critics claimed. The sci-fi action is fun to watch. The characters are well played.
Do we owe the entertainment factor to Alden Ehrenreich who fits the part of Han Solo so well, Joonas Suotamo who does justice to the character of Chewbacca, to Emilia Clarke’s portrayal, to Donald Glover’s excellent performance? To director Ron Howard? To the writers?
The plot is pretty decent, though there were a couple of tropes thrown in which make it somewhat predictable. I tell you what though, the way Chewbacca and Han Solo meet is perfect. It was somewhat predictable, but as a viewer I wanted them to meet so much the predictability was forgivable.
An injection of jokes by L3 were seasoned and brief and well placed within the movie. They were just puerile enough to be welcome and satisfying for younger viewers. Had the jokes carried on too long, or been placed somewhere else within the film it would have been ruined.
The way Han Solo and Lando get along is exactly as it should be. Their friendship should always be hanging by the thinnest of threads. They’re both outlaws in a wild universe.
Stunt performers did a fabulous job. You can’t credit the stunt-men and -women enough for any movie. They make the action seem real.
For a while now, I’ve been worrying about Disney ruining a good thing. Star Wars can be a massively fun escape from reality. I can get into a movie and get into a galaxy far from my own, to view the sights and hear the sounds—sounds of a long time ago.
By the way, the opener with the introduction to the setting was all goofy. It starts out as it should: “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” and then it goes from past tense to present tense, like so: “It is a lawless time. CRIME SYNDICATES compete for resources—food, medicine, and HYPERFUEL.” This is a lesson for writers. Don’t switch tense mid-paragraph. They should have written it like so: “It was a lawless time. CRIME SYNDICATES competed for resources—food, medicine, and HYPERFUEL.”
On this and many other films, I think I’ll listen less to the critics and make up my own mind. This is a great movie and I’ll watch it again sometime.
Xenosthesia.com 