{"id":1190301,"date":"2018-05-24T10:16:46","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T09:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/8ce250469d.nxcli.io\/?p=1190301"},"modified":"2020-08-23T01:56:34","modified_gmt":"2020-08-23T00:56:34","slug":"solo-a-star-wars-story-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2018\/05\/24\/solo-a-star-wars-story-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Solo: A Star Wars Story review"},"content":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s been a troubled road to the screen but Solo: A Star Wars Story has finally arrived in cinemas with the latest Star Wars off-shoot looking to inject some much-need goodwill into the franchise after The Last Jedi divided audiences. This is a slightly different beast in that Solo: A Star Wars Story is a film that you can enjoy without any back-story. It\u2019s designed as a standalone film but don\u2019t be surprised if a sequel or two ends up happening because the solid groundwork is here.<\/p>\n
Solo is an origin story of everyone\u2019s favourite Star Wars character Han Solo. We join a young Han (Alden Ehrenreich) as he tries to leave a troubled life behind. Along with his girlfriend Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) the two try to escape a life of criminality on the planet Corellia. They get separated but Han vows to return when he\u2019s able to rustle up enough currency and a ship to make a new life for them both. In order to do that, he navigates the underworld and joins a group of rag-tag pirates lead by Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) along with a wookie named Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo). They have to pull off a daring mission for local crime lord Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany) that will have grave repercussions for everyone if they fail.<\/p>\n
[brid video=”229244″ player=”531″ title=”Solo A Star Wars Story Official Trailer”]<\/p>\n
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When the original directing duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller left the project due to \u2018creative differences\u2019 a safe pair of hands was called upon to steady the ship and handle some reshoots. Ron Howard is a safe director; he knows how to handle a film of this scale and ends up delivering a matinee movie that\u2019s massively enjoyable to watch. It would have been nice to see what Lord and Miller\u2019s interpretation was but given the upheaval, its remarkable that Solo: A Star Wars Story comes out as so enjoyable.<\/p>\n
As an origin story it doesn\u2019t scratch too deep and that\u2019s a shame. Instead we have a linear adventure yarn that doesn\u2019t offer many surprises but that does the basics exceptionally well. I was ok with that; others won\u2019t be, so your enjoyment will squarely hinge on your expectations going into this movie. And on that note, seeing someone play Han Solo other than Harrison Ford is just plain weird. But I made my peace with this a long time ago, and acknowledging that no-one will ever top Ford\u2019s performance does help you enjoy this film a lot more. That\u2019s also not to disparage Alden Ehrenreich performance – he is actually really good as the charming rogue and does exceptionally well leading the film. He also never makes his performance an impression of Ford, which is welcome.<\/p>\n