Solo

(HK release: 25 May 2018)

Well, it’s another Star Wars movie. And that pretty much sums the film up. Before I embark on further discussion, however, full disclosure. I am a Star Wars fan in a mild way. I have not read any of the books, apart from a brief glance at one, so I don’t know what, if anything, in the script was borrowed from them. I grew up with the original trilogy and am a rabid Princess Leia fan. I can remember seeing The Return of the Jedi in the theatre and later on listening to a radio version of The Empire Strikes in our kitchen. I’ve also seen the “The Hero’s Adventure,” the first episode in Joseph Campbell’s 1988 miniseries The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, and suspect that what made Star Wars IV: A New Hope a hit was a powerful, primal story told in a new way. Episodes I-III didn’t even come close to the original trilogy for me, for a number of reasons. Among these was the fact that the prequels had nothing new to say. They just filled in the story we already knew with terrible acting and worse dialogue.

As yet another prequel, Solo does much the same thing in terms of filling in details to a story we already know, but with the advantages of better acting and a better script. This is not to say that there’s anything close to Oscar worthy going on, but certainly the film went all out casting big name actors who turned in decent performances. (Seldom have I watched a film that so frequently called to mind a successful film or TV series every time a new face appeared on screen.) The story is solid, perhaps even slightly mechanistic, rather than inspired. Given all the real and rumored production difficulties, we should probably give the last-minute replacement director, Ron Howard, a pat on the back for the fact it turned out as well as it did.

Despite the flaws, the movie does offer reasons to go see it and find it enjoyable, including abundant Easter eggs for fans of the original trilogy. (Mild spoilers ahead.) Some notable moments: Han Solo and Chewbacca’s first meeting. Han correcting Lando’s pronunciation of his name. Chewbacca kicking ass on behalf of some other Wookies. Fairly compelling villains, both obvious and not so obvious, and a story arc that teases intriguing backstory for a bad guy from a later film. Chewbacca playing holo-chess, badly. The Millennium Falcon. Chewbacca. Han acquiring his famous blaster. Chewbacca. Lando Calrissian’s capes. Qi’ra trying on one of Lando’s many capes. Chewbacca. Cool weapons that aren’t even vaguely like lightsabers. And did I mention Chewbacca? The Hong Kong film distributers marketed the film with an appearance by a live-action Chewbacca and Chewbacca masks. Enough said.

And now for things in the film that made me sigh. If you don’t want to know who dies, stop reading.

Thandie Newton is fabulous as Val Beckett. She plays what promised to be an interesting, strong female character, and also happens to be a person of color. So why, script writers, why? Was it really necessary to kill her almost immediately? I don’t wholly object to the way she died, but the role seemed more like a cameo inserted to help drive the plot than an integral part of the movie. Sigh.

L3 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) serves the function of the obligatory smart-aleck droid, this time a female version who is a militant advocate for droid rights. She not only dies, but as others on the internet have noted, is not actually allowed to die with dignity. She is literally reduced from a fully-rounded (if mostly one-note) sentient individual to the one component required to—you guessed it--move the plot forward. What gives, script writers? Sigh.

In fairness, they did kill off another, non-female character quite early on, but he seemed to have a lot more lines than Val Beckett. And that said, he too died for the sake of the plot. The scriptwriters needed to clear the field for what was to come. Part of the problem is that the other characters are so clearly there to revolve around Han and Han’s character arc. One gets the feeling that if Han Solo’s character didn’t exist, neither would any of the others. There’s little meaningful interaction between anyone else in the film, and almost none at all in which a scene focuses on them as people independent of Han. Even (ahem) a solo conversation between L3 and Qi’ra is about Han (and thus fails the Bechdel test). I know the film is called Solo, but the result of this very Han-centric story is even weaker character development than usual for a Star Wars movie. Sigh.

As a new character, Qi’ra seems unremarkable but fine. Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), however, is just too self-satisfied and smarmy. Billy Dee Williams was smooooth and quite charming. Glover plays the role like an arrogant, condescending jerk, calling Han “kiddo.” If, as I believe is meant to be the case, Han and Lando don’t meet again until the events of The Empire Strikes Back, Lando’s attitude toward Han in Solo creates a huge disconnect between the two films. Sigh.

As for Han, Alden Ehrenreich gives him his best shot, but never quite gets there. I blame this too on the script, actually. One of the best aspects of the Han Solo character was always that he was a bit of an anti-hero, a rogue whose cynicism hid a good but mostly reluctant heart. Solo asks us to believe that Han started out as an idealistic, trusting do-gooder immediately loyal to anyone who wanders into his life and remains there for more than five minutes. He’s the naïve kid in this story, despite his life as a thieving street rat/indentured gang member on Corellia, and the only one allowed any character development at all. And by the end of the film, Han Solo does seem to move a little closer to the cocksure, badass cynic we know and love, even if he’s nowhere near being Harrison Ford’s loveable rogue. Simply put, the Han I know would never have let someone else choose a last name for him. Sigh.