Star Wars ‘Solo’ – a fun, but unnecessary prequel

Disney tells the origin story of the iconic Han Solo

Lucas Torborg
A&E Editor

Disney once again released another Star Wars film. Solo is now the 10th theatrical film to be released in the Star Wars universe. However, this story has nothing to do about the force or the traditional story between the light side and the dark side. Instead it focuses on the baddest scoundrel of all the galaxy, Han Solo.

The newest Star Wars film “Solo” has been getting a large amount of negative publicity from the production of the film that was plagued by numerous problems to its disappointing box office weekend.

However; despite all these problems is Solo still a good movie? “Solo” was technically directed by three people. The original directors, duo Chris Miller and Phil Lord were fired halfway through production due to creative differences.

Acclaimed director Ron Howard took over directorial duties and is the credited director of the film.The story consists of a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) who lives on the industrious planet Corellia. The planet is made up of slums and orphaned children who will do anything to survive.

Han and his girlfriend Qi’ra (Emilia Clark) finally make plans to illegally leave the planet in search of a better life. Han sneaks onto a ship leaving the planet, but Qi’ra is captured by gang member who were chasing both Han and Qi.

Three years later Han is serving the empire as a soldier. During one particular battle Han meets a gang of robbers disguised as soldiers. Han joins the robbers in a dangerous heist mission that will give him enough money to get a ship and to rescue Qi.

Along this journey Han meets his future best friend Chewbacca as well as his friend/ enemy Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover).

Solo overall is a mixed bag. Some parts are great and wildly entertaining while other parts feel slow and dragged on. However; the biggest downside of the movie is that it just feels unnecessary, making it seem as if the only purpose for this movie was to make money.

Looking back at the movie it is honestly forgettable, there is no particular scene or line that is memorable. This ultimately could be due to the fact that there are no stakes to the film since it is prequel.

Although the movie is nothing special there are some highlights. Alden Ehrenreich’s performance as Han Solo at first was a little irritating, but after a while grew on me quite a bit and overall was a very entertaining layered portrayal of Han Solo.

The cast is the main component that keeps this film together. Everyone has great chemistry together especially Ehrenreich and Glover.

The style of the film I thought was also a standout. It was very refreshing to see a movie in the Star Wars universe that doesn’t feel like the traditional Star Wars film. In its core Solo is a light-hearted heist movie.

The best thing I can say about the film is that although it is rather forgettable I had a lot of fun while I was watching. I recommend seeing this one, but not in the theatre.

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