After Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm and the success of The Force Awakens, they really went medieval with the Star Wars franchise, succeeding with the series' first spinoff film Rogue One, and followed it up with one starring beloved character Han Solo, titled Solo: A Star Wars Story, directed by Ron Howard, who had worked on Lucasfilm's Willow. The production was fairly troubled, with one actor's scenes being cut out entirely due to him being unavailable for reshoots, alongside things such as early release posters leading to lawsuits for plagiarism. Did the final product justify all these creation woes?
Solo opens on Corellia, where Han and his fellow orphan Qi'ra escape a local gang, bribing an Imperial officer for passage on transport, although Qi'ra is captured, Hand vowing to get her back. He joins the Imperial Navy and is given the surname "Solo," which is probably one of the film's lamest elements, with no backstory given to the iconic Star Wars character before then aside from his orphan status. Han is eventually expelled for insubordination, gets involved with pretend Imperial officers, and is thrown into a pit where he meets his best friend Chewbacca.
Han and Chewie escape, meeting Lando Calrissian and sharing the Millennium Falcon, which makes the Kessel Run. Other various stuff happens, with some good surprises towards the end. Though the film really divided critics and fans, I still really enjoyed it, even if it probably won't receive any kind of follow-up due to its status as being the first Star Wars movie to lose money. There are definitely stupid elements such as how Han gets his last name, and the troubled production probably had some bearing on the narrative, but it's still an interesting part of Star Wars history.
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| The Bottom Line | |
| Really fun film, but definitely not perfect (but neither are the original films, you idiot "fans") | |
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