It’s no secret that the making of the latest Han Solo centric Star Wars film has not had the most ideal behind the scenes to get it to the big screen. Initially signed to the Writer/Director pair behind the LEGO Movie who were later removed from the production and replaced with Ron Howard during the filming process. You would be forgiven for assuming that a Rancor pit might be a more calm production environment.
But despite all of the drama the latest Star Wars film has made it to cinemas and not only that but without moving from it’s original scheduled release date. So how does this film about a scruffy looking Nerf herder measure up.
Solo: A Star Wars story is the eight Star Wars film to make it to the big screen and now the second non-Skywalker Story under the care of Disney after their purchase of the franchise. And while there is a huge amount of canon to draw from the one thing you need to know walking into this film is… nothing.
We aren’t going to tell you who Han Solo is, we are going to assume you have seen Star Wars if you have made it to our site. But SOLO is a starting place for Han Solo and Chewbacca. While it is connected to the larger Star Wars Universe this is not intended as something to fill in missing story lines between the Skywalker Saga episodes like Rogue One (aka episode 3.5).
Also, while there has been decades of Star Wars books, comics and cartoons known as the Expanded Universe or EU, under Disney the entire EU was wiped clean as non-canon (except for the original 6 movies, the Clone Wars CGI animated series and the Darth Maul Son of Dathomir comic mini-series from Dark Horse Comics based on an unproduced Clone Wars episode/arc).
All of this means for SOLO is that walking in you don’t to know anything, outside of maybe ‘Stormtroopers are bad’.
Solo: A Star Wars Story introduces you to Han Solo, yes we know you already know Han Solo but this is effectively his origin story. While not a lot of the story’s twists will be a surprise to anyone who knows which ship made the Kessel Run in under 12 Parsecs it definitely ticks a lot of boxes for fans who wish they got to see Han (and Chewie’s) origin story.
At it’s heart Solo is a heist movie taking place in the Star Wars universe. But the Star Wars universe away from the Sith and the Jedi, there are no epic lightsaber battles here with most of the story revolving around the wretched hive of scum and villainy the Star Wars criminal underworld is known for.
Without spoiling any of the main story for anyone the film itself is much more action focused and some what lighter than the previous Rogue One Star Wars Story. The action is fluid and the special effects throughout are what you would expect from ILM. While many may have had concerns about someone other than Harrison Ford playing Han Solo, Alden Ehrenreich definitely made us feel that there is hope for many more Han Solo (and Indiana Jones) stories to be told.
In fact the end of this film does leave us wondering if there are potential sequels in the works. We already know that Ehrenreich has signed on for 3 Han Solo related movies, whether that means 2 more sequels or somehow tying into the Jon Favreau Star Wars live action series, Star Wars: Underworld.. we guess we are going to have to just wait and see.
So should you go see it? If you are in need of your next Star Wars fix and you want something more related to the original trilogy than the TFA/TLJ installments this is definitely the movie for you as long as you are looking for a fun movie and not something that you will be comparing to the no longer relevant canon.
There are some rumours about what is going to be the next Star Wars movie after Episode IX which will be the end of the Skywalker saga and we are expecting something to be announced at next year’s Star Wars Celebration in 2019 (as it is being skipped this year). If it gets us more Han, Chewie and Lando we are absolutely onboard.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is in Cinemas in 2D and 3D around Australia right now.
