Solo: A Star Wars Story (dir. Ron Howard)

There used to be a time when a new Star Wars film was met with a giddy anticipation. Force Awakens, Rogue One and The Last Jedi have taken the mantle of the new schlock of galaxy nonsense since 2015, and the impressive box-office takings are equally as healthy. Then how come Solo: A Star Wars Story comes bolting into cinemas like the perennial Millennium Flacon through hyperspace, with an whiff of unease? Surely one of the most beloved heroes from the Luke Skywalker narrative arc should be able to front a standalone film without a hitch, and aided by a cast that includes the talented likes of Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson and Donald Glover should be able to pull it off. Well, not so much.

Let's trace our minds back to it's plagued production history. Original director Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie) were Disney exec Kathleen Kennedy's first choice to helm the Han Solo standalone piece, working off a script from legendary screenwriter Laurence Kasdan and son Jonathon. They seemed like the perfect fit, as their sardonic wit and wry style of writing would mesh perfectly with the abrasive curmudgeon in Han Solo. However, much like Gareth Edwards during his mammoth time filming Rogue One, the producers over at Disney have the final say on everything, and before long, our trusty duo found themselves unceremoniously thrown out in the ether amid the moniker of "creative differences"- soon to be replaced by veteran Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code)

Who really knows what went on behind closed doors, and even if it's by far the most interesting facet to the Solo, it's inevitably down to money. Suffice to say, Kennedy likes to keep her production lined vehicles to a formula, and Lord and Miller were keen on improvisation and a flair for the dramatic - which was at odds with Disney's stringent and rigid filmmaking aesthetics. But interestingly, after watching Solo: A Star Wars Story, i wondered if there interpretation would of been much better, as after nearly 11 films exploring these characters that we've come to know and love, it's all becoming dangerously akin to cinematic overkill.

We meet Han (Alden Ehrenreich) as a member of an oppressed society under the tutelage of the Lady Proxima (voiced by Linda Hunt), with his daily swashbuckling scams for the 20-foot crustacean becoming increasingly fruitless. Fearing death, Han and his significant other Qi'Ra (Emilia Clarke) have plans to set sail for greener pastures on another planet, and almost make it before being split apart at the airport. Years later, vowing to find enough money to buy a ship and return to his betrothed, Han becomes a pilot in the imperial army, hoping to become the "best pilot in the galaxy, though is shoehorned into trench-like warfare with the Empire's newest enemy.

Facing a life taking orders, Han meets a group of renegade thieves whilst stuck in the mud of the battlefield and sees an opportunity to show his potential. Headed by serial scammer Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), with Val (Thandie Newton) and soon their trusty advisory Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), Han teams up with the mercenary group in order to finance his return and prove himself as a pilot. Before long, our rag-tag group of thieves are facing competition from a fellow insurgents Enfys Nest (Erin Kellyman) - and even more gravely from mobster Dryden Voss (a scenery-chewing Paul Bethany), who just so happens to have taken Qi'Ra as his personal concubine. After a while, Voss sends Han and co out for a personal job to secure their safety, with them meeting up with Lando Calrissien (Donald Glover) and L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) along the way.

Perhaps the most striking elements of Solo are the individual performances. Much has been spoken of Ehrenreich tumultuous turn as the rugged yet charismatic thief, including a reported acting coach on set to fine-tune Solo's particular eccentricities. Following in the footsteps of Harrison Ford is no mean feat, and the "Hail Caesar" star equips himself relatively well. As do the supporting cast, Harrelson is always good value for money, Waller-Bridge brings some well-needed humor to proceedings in the shape of her brazen droid L3-37, and the ever popular Donald Glover cements his place as one of Hollywood's hottest talents with an abundance of charisma as the sorely underused Lando Calrissien.

But here are my grievances. You don't bring a director like Ron Howard in to induce originality - he's there to get the job done. The veteran director has found great success in the past with hits like "Cinderella Man" and "The Beautiful Mind", yet for all it's worth, he's a very ordinary director at the best of times. Take a look at his "Angels and Demon's trilogy", all of which became increasingly banal- and even more importantly - frustrating to watch with each passing. In his direction of Solo, it's all too safe, and there's a air of pointlessness about everything. Furthermore, the storytelling leaves much to be desired. Despite some occasional plot reveals, we don't learn anything relatively new about Han or his upbringing and are left with a film that feels strangely like a greatest hits album. Is it too much for me to say that the producers over at Disney are so preoccupied with making it "work", that they forget to inject a sense of playfulness into their filmmaking acumen?

In the same breadth as fellow cinematic offering, Avengers: Infinity War, "Solo: A Star Wars Story" has it's eye on the nerd fandom. It would be churlish of me to ascertain that the average cinema-goer, who's affinity to Star Wars ranges from the almost completely ignorant to the odd quiz answer, won't find aspects of this $200 million Sci-Fi spectacle entertaining, as it's jam-packed with breathtaking set-pieces and the occasional visually arresting backdrop. Yet for all it's glitz and glamour, and it's notoriously troublesome production history, the worst thing you can say about "Solo: A Star Wars Story" is that its existence is purely perfunctory. Look at the assumed box-office takings for it's Memorial day opening weekend, as it will surely fall short of it's projected coop, and it's raises the question. Did anyone really want a movie about Han Solo? Not really, and six months after the divisive Last Jedi (which i loved), is the Star Wars world-domination slowing down? Perhaps - but if they want to reach the heights of Marvel and conquer all demographics with their spin-offs and so forth, they need to come up with something original, and punch-it fast.

Rating 2.5/5