An awfully big previous adventure
IF THERE’S one takeaway from Solo: A Star Wars Story, it’s that our favourite scoundrel had been through a lot before he met up with Luke, Obi-wan and Leia.
Sure, he’d talked up his Kessel Run time and out-manoeuvring Imperial ships, but this film contains at least three epic setpieces, involving a job atop a high-speed train careening around a snowy mountain, a fiery space showdown with a squid-like supermonster and an explosion-filled shootout that are so spectacular, they have the effect of making what Han ends up going through in Episode IV and beyond seem suspiciously tame by comparison.
Bigger, louder, and more seem to be the guiding principles of the film and while on their own they might make a pleasurable romp, it’s dubious as to whether these pre-skywalker adventures have really added anything of value to the character. There’s an argument to be made that it might even undermine his hero’s arc in the first film.
It’s the overriding issue with Solo: A Star Wars Story, which had baggage from the get-go. Unlike a character from a book or a play, Han Solo didn’t exist outside of Harrison Ford, and the two are now linked by more than 40 years of goodwill and nostalgia. Although no character is so precious that they can’t break from the actor who made them memorable – even Indiana Jones had two younger versions of himself – it’s still not an enviable position to be in. The man who took the job, Alden Ehrenreich, does not look or sound like Ford, and it’s difficult to adjust at the beginning. You can’t help but scrutinise every gesture, every smirk, every aside as you try to get used to him. Eventually you do, and the talented Ehrenreich wins you over with his execution, capturing Han’s spirit, his sarcasm, egotism and charm with apparent ease.
Co-written by Star Wars royalty Lawrence Kasdan and his son, Jonathan, Solo: A Star Wars Story introduces Han on his home planet of Corellia, where he serves under a local mob boss and dreams of fleeing, becoming a pilot and owning a ship.
Young Han is scrappy and overconfident and makes things up as he goes along. It’s how he ends up hooking up with a band of outlaws led by Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson).
This is a straightforward piece of pulpy entertainment with fun classic Western flourishes, despite the big action sequences. –AP