Solo: A Star Wars Story

Sometimes even our best laid plans don't go exactly how we wanted them to. Han's got big plans - plans to blast off his home planet of Corellia with his girlfriend Qi'ra and become a pilot in order to explore the galaxy. In order to do that, he has to escape his indentured servitude on Corellia and attempt to join the Galactic Empire as a pilot. Good enough plan, but he and Qi'ra are almost caught trying to escape, and are separated in the attempt. Han makes a promise to return for Qi'ra, and makes his way into the Empire's service as a pilot. But even that doesn't go as planned, as he's eventually kicked out of the Imperial Flight Academy and thrust on the ground in the middle of the war. During one major battle Han comes across a smuggler/criminal named Tobias Beckett who eventually takes Han under his wing and brings him along for a major job - to smuggle an unstable substance named coaxium by doing the infamous Kessel Run.

I'm a bit disappointed that Solo: A Star Wars Story isn't doing so well at the box office, because it's really quite fun.  It probably wasn't a good idea to release it just a few months after the divisive The Last Jedi (which I personally loved), but either way I loved it. For me, it was fun to see events referenced throughout the original trilogy - the Sabacc game in which Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon, how Han and Chewbacca meet, and of course the infamous Kessel Run. As with Rogue One, I thought the throwbacks/easter egg references to other parts of the larger Star Wars universe was handled very well, not so 'in your face' like in The Force Awakens. They were mostly more of the 'blink and you'll miss it' type. Alden Ehrenreich did pretty well as a young Han Solo with the material he was given. I wasn't expecting the rough-around-the-edges sarcastic smuggler we see in the original trilogy, but there were frequent glimpses of the Han Solo fans love throughout the movie. Donald Glover was perfectly cast as a young Lando Calrissian. He nailed the suave, playboy smuggler type we first meet in Empire Strikes Back. Woody Harrelson and Emilia Clarke did well with their respective roles as well, though I didn't really come around to enjoy their characters as much as I would have liked. It seemed more like they were just filler characters in order to move Han Solo to become the smuggler fans know and love, instead of characters of real substance. With Emilia's character as Qi'ra, I'm hoping that changes if/when there's a sequel to Solo, as there's a scene towards the end with a fantastic cameo which alludes to there being more to the story. I won't be the one to spoil the cameo if you haven't seen it, but I was both kind of surprised and very happy with it.

Overall, Solo's not the best of the new Star Wars movies, but personally I haven't seen a bad Star Wars movie from Disney yet. I hope that trend continues.