SOLO - A STAR WARS STORY - REVIEW

Okay.... just arrived home from seeing SOLO, my first reaction is that its not brilliant. But then again, its not bad. Once was enough, I don't plan to see it again. Liked it more than TLJ and TFA and would put it on par with Rogue One. Good start, ok middle, so-so ending. It's basically a heist/robbery film which involves getting things to do things which does other things that aren't really that important. Its a Han and Chewie origin film which is quite basically done and feels a bit lazy and rushed. The young Han is quite believable and delivers a good performance.

My Score: 5/10

Some Spoiler reveals:

Spoiler

Han has no surname until he joins the Empire to live his dream as a pilot and escape Corellia, where an Imperial officer gives him the surname "Solo" because he has no family and joined up alone.

Chewbacca and Han are prisoners, Han frees Chewbacca, they team up.

The droid L3 is a bit annoying with the SJW attitude, but has very good navigational maps of the galaxy. L3 is "owned" by Lando Calrissian and is his co-pilot on the Falcon. When L3 is destroyed in a battle, her memory is saved and put into the Millennium Falcon's navigational computer permanantly.

There are two games of Sabaac between Lando and Han. Han loses the first game, but learns how he lost as Lando has been cheating, for a later rematch when he wins the Falcon from Lando "fair and square".

Qui'ra is part of the Crimson Dawn, and the big reveal at the end is Darth Maul is also part of it and appears as a hologram to Qui'ra.

 

I found it strange that the supposedly badass space pilot Captain Han Solo of the OT didn't get to fly a ship until he was kicked out of the Imperial Navy and only briefly on a couple of freighters that were not his during the events of SOLO. He had never been off Corellia before joining the Navy. Comparisons with Luke having his first ever space flight in an X-Wing Fighter are inevitable.

More exposition of Han's space piloting skills during his career in the Imperial Navy were needed. None are shown. Speeder chase scenes are not enough to explain his space piloting abilities. Driving on the ground is not the same as flying through space at hyperspace speeds.

Then again, his "skills" may be attributed purely to the navigational computer aboard the Falcon, which now contain the space charts of the highly annoying SJW droid called L3-37 - which was the worst thing about the film.

Another thing I've thought about since yesterday, Han recalls that his father used to be involved in the manufacturer of the YT-1300 freighter (Falcon type). How is Han not able to remember his own family name and assumes the name of "Solo" given to him by the Imperial recruitmenr officer? But Han somehow manages to remember his own fathers career but not the family name? The whole "Solo" given name thing is unneccessary, and should have been edited out.

Oh, and where exactly did that other wookiee go?