Director: Ron Howard
Writers: Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan
Stars: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover.
Plot: Star Wars side story. We get to see Han Solo as a young man, learning about the empire, becoming a pilot and meeting his frenemy Lando Calrissian.
Review Summary: Pleasantly surprising. Actually worth going to see.
Review: I was totally prepared to actively dislike this film. I was actually a little bit disappointed by how enjoyable if I am honest. The characters are quite relatable and there is a good balance of action, comradery and romance. I was worried that with a young and attractive cast that there would be an overkill of longing staring and fleeting eye contact but they actually mingled the romance in with the action in an appropriate way.
Negatives:
- We have a whole wave of new characters introduced and I don’t feel that they were all needed. I would definitely argue that the wrong ones were given the more screen time.
Positives:
- They clearly examined the original trilogy source material closely and got a few ideas from it, but they didn’t just replicate the Han we know. That makes sense because adult Han was clearly the product of some interesting stories and a whole heap of experience so the younger version would be a little more naive .
Generally speaking, I enjoyed the direction that they went with this. Solid performances from the main cast and thematically spot on for the time period in the franchise. I am looking forward to seeing how they spring on from this into Boba Fett and Kenobi.
Enjoyment Rating: 4/5
Quality Rating: 4/5
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