Reviews & Ratings for
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Ironic but true. I am not a Star Wars fan but do respect its fan passion for the franchise. The new Star Wars film never excited me and this doesn't change my opinion either. Though we all know all the behind the scenes issues, what should be held accountable is the inconsistency between the intended narrative and the direction. I suppose( and by the track record of Millers) this movie was to be a popcorn fun humorous film to enjoy during the summer, which was not supposed to adhere to the burden of its heritage. Alas, we ended up with characters who don't know why they were there and why they were doing the things that they were doing. Why did a character sacrifice herself when the ones remained could easily talk their way out? Why did a character betray only to betray again!

Han Solo himself finds it hard to stand out from the crowd of his replicas like Starlord...

If you aren't tired catching two back to back superhero films, you can give it a shot, it's a fine flick.

Solo is a film directed by Ron Howard. Amid the controversies surrounding the making of this film, I was in doubt whether this film will be good or not. The trailers looked OK and I decided not to raise any of my expectations. After watching the film, I can say that it was pretty entertaining.

Plot: Explores the adventures of young Solo when he meets his friends during a heist within the criminal underworld.

Story and direction: No one is a stranger from the troubles when this film was made. And this is very clearly visible during the course of the film. Some story-lines feel very under-developed and half-hearted. The story has quite a promise to be improved on as it was looking promising. But I guess Disney opted to make it a money making vehicle. The film has fantastic action scenes and was excellent when watched in 3D. I have loved Han Solo in the original films and that’s because he was characterized so nicely. You kinda feel for him. But here they for opt the safe route which has no risks. Although this film does have some moment, I wanted more of them because that’s what makes Star Wars exceptional. It adds nothing to the Star Wars universe to make it special. It was good to listen to John Williams’ score in between the films but I did think that John Powell also has done an excellent job on his score as well.

Performances: Let’s be honest. No matter how many actors come and go, no one plays Han Solo as great as Harrison Ford. But if I judge independently, Alden Ehrenreich did a fine job. Woody Harrelson also did a fine job although I didn’t get the mentor part that was in the promos. Emilia Clarke was good but I wanted her character explored much more. Donald Glover was perfect. Each time he was on the screen, the scene was lightened up. Thandie Newton and Paul Bettany were hugely under-utilized.

Favorite Scene: It would be the first interaction between Chewbacca and Han. That scene showed why the bond between them was so strong and why they have that kind of respect for each other.

Verdict: I have no problems with Disney bringing Star Wars’ films each year. But just making them money spinning ventures is. I hope that Disney takes this as a warning signal and invest as much quality onto these Anthology films. Out of the 2 anthology films that have come I would say that this one is the weakest. I had a good time but that is not just enough in case if a Star Wars film. I want the experience to be remembered by me. I want to rejoice the experience of seeing the Star Wars film.

I am going with a 7/10.

BE-WARNED. This Review has some Spoilers. Spoiler advisory is given clearly, before they start.

Star Wars used to mean, adventure, a fun time and something new to see, to discuss, ponder and debate. That was star wars under George Lucas.

Then came the dark times. Lucas became a hated and despised filmmaker and he sold off the franchise to Disney.

Under the mouse, star wars episode 7 was pretty much a imitation (albeit a weak one) of episode 4. Rogue one was pretty solid and enjoyable. All seemed right in the world.

Then came episode 8. Pretty much panned by critics and not entirely loved by the audience, I didn’t hate it, but wouldn’t like to see it again and again like it is typical with the original star wars films.

And now this year we have SOLO, a star wars story.

The production of this film was severely troubled and at one time the directors were fired and replaced with good ole Ron Howard of ‘A beautiful mind’ fame.

But despite that, we had all hoped that this will turn out to be a good film.

Sadly that is not the case.

Solo is bad. I was expecting mediocre, maybe somewhat ok-ish film. But this was outright a disaster.

First off, the casting is terrible. The lead actor had 99% Less charisma and charm than Harrison ford who played the original Solo as recently as 2015. The supporting cast is disappoint with an equally bland actor (Donal Glover) playing Lando Calrissian, who was the smoothest and coolest dude in Episode 5. Now he is some sort of loser moron with a superiority complex. Rest of the cast is forgettable at best. Annoying and death worthy at their best.
The acting doesn’t do any favors to the film, the camera work, cinematography and action are all equally bland and boring. I FAIL to understand how an film like this which is about a series of heists can be so damn dull and boring.

(VERY MINOR Spoilers ahead)

A train action heist just starts with ZERO setup, no thrill and the sequence itself is so damn boring. Captain America had a similar sort of train sequence, but that was quite a bit better than this. After this rather boring arse sequence, the story moves to some random scene, its an mandatory alien cantina scene. ALL star wars films now need to have one…
Everything in this film is beyond boring. The introduction to lando calrissian is hasty and lacks any punch. The millennium falcon introduction is horrible! They did it better in episode 4 with less than 1/10th the budget!
Then there is an extremely badly edited and confusingly placed scene when han uses his blaster the first time, oh boy I wish one of our Telugu directors had gotten his hands on that scene. We have much better cool moments in Baahubali and Magadeera than this, when a hero decides to fight and the audience cheers.
The only halfway decent scene is when Han get to pilot the Falcon for the first time. But still episode 7 did that BETTER! Come on now! That scene in episode 7 had us cheering and clapping, it sends shivers at how cool that scene was. However, this film’s scene was barely decent AND they had Han and Chewie!

The music is more or less a bad rehash of episode 4 and we hear Han and Liea’s theme a lot, but its not rousing or entertaining.

Now towards the end of the film, one of the masked villains of the film REVEAL themselves. We have no idea who the heck this person is… and the reveal was so damn anti climactic, we started to laugh instead of getting more intrigued. The person shown looks as if they are a game of thrones extra and doesn’t belong in a star wars film at all! (I know emilia clark is in this film… the irony is not lost on me).
Not to mention they HAD to include a han and chewie slightly gay sort of scene and also show that chewie is jealous when han talks to girls. (which WAS there also in Episode 5, but the gay vibes were missing)

So, all in all, this film is not worth your time or money. Catch it on Netflix or amazon Prime…

Rating :
4.5 / 10. A Skippable movie for star wars fans and non fans alike.



(Major Spoilers ahead)
P.S : The only scene which intrigued me was when they revealed Darth Maul, half machine now, after being cut in two by obi wan in episode 1, as the main villain behind all of this film’s heist drama. I wish he was in this film more. Or they would make a obi wan vs darth maul film. That would be sort of cool. Maul was a damn cool villain who was extremely short changed in episode 1.