If Solo: A Star Wars Story could rid itself of that subtitle and all of the pop culture baggage that comes along with it, it would be one of the year’s best action films. I’m not totally convinced that it isn’t even as a ‘Star Wars Story’, but the times when Solo feels most fatigued is when it attempts to drag itself within that monolithic franchise, as if to prove itself worthy of inclusion. The very existence of Solo feels unnecessary, as if the original 1977 Star Wars film wasn’t enough of an origin story for the franchise’s sexiest character. It preposterously suggests that what made Han Solo was George Lucas’ character, and not Harrison Ford’s unforgettable portrayal of him. In the same way that Blade Runner 2049 felt insufficient, Solo only further proves that the character was intertwined within Ford’s charisma and to consider recreating it with someone else is arrogant and presumptuous.

Solo doesn’t make the same mistake that 2049 does in actually casting Harrison Ford in the film, flaunting its biggest mistake in the audience’s face. No, it recasts the part of Han Solo with 28-year-old actor Alden Ehrenreich, best known (by me) as the hilariously dimwitted would-be movie star in the Coen Brothers’ criminally underrated comedy Hail, Caeser!. Solo allows the young actor to find his own unique voice in the part. Ehrenreich is boyish and giddy, where Ford’s magnetism was mature and mischievous. The threat of sex is never as imminent in Ehrenreich’s Han Solo, but you get the sense that if the film’s script (written by Star Wars mainstay Lawrence Kasdan and his son, Jonathan Kasdan) had allowed it, Ehrenreich could have provided it. More than anything, Solo gives us enough evidence that Ehrenreich deserves his own movie star vehicle in the same way Ford deserved his.

As far as origin stories go, Solo answers a whole lot of questions I didn’t know I needed answers to. For instance, his childhood as an orphan-turned-petty-thief on the notoriously gloomy planet of Corellia, which he spends the first twenty minutes of Solo trying to escape with his kind-of-girlfriend-kind-of-best-friend Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke). When Han and Qi’ra are separated, he swears that he will come back for her, no matter what it takes. After joining the Imperial Flight Academy where he learns to be a pilot, he ends up deserting and joining a group of thieves led by the notorious Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and his wife, Val (Thandie Newton). Through the kind of inane coincidence that only happens in these kinds of movies, Han ends up reunited with Qi’ra years later on a totally different planet, only to find her a confidante and lieutenant for Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany) the nefarious leader of the Crimson Dawn, a crime syndicate searching for a hefty haul of coaxium, a hyperspace fuel that appears to be this universe’s most prized reqource.

With Qi’ra and Beckett, Han is tapped to pull off a major coaxium heist for Vos, with the threat of execution if they can’t pull it off. Throughout their journey they meet a few Star Wars characters that you would expect, and some you won’t. In a muddy, underground cell, Han meets a giant, enslaved wookie named Chewbacca (Finnish actor Joonas Suotamo, a solid Peter Mayhew replacement); and in an attempt to commandeer a ship worthy of their risky mission, Han is introduced to a notorious smuggler named Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), who is willing to volunteer his new ship, the Millenium Falcon, if Han can manage to win a game of sabacc, a card game that doesn’t try even a little bit to differentiate itself from poker. All these easter eggs are cute and will placate fans, but it also undermines what is actually an incredibly spry, entertaining script that the Kasdans have put together. This is proof that Hollywood is definitely able to create a terrific, broad science fiction adventure film, but seems unwilling to do so unless Star Wars is in some way associated.

Solo‘s famously troubled shoot – originally directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, only to be replaced in the middle of shooting by studio mainstay Ron Howard – has little effect on the final product, I feel. You can certainly feel elements of Lord and Miller’s chaotic, perpetual hysteria and their insistence that all and all, these movies should be fun. Many bemoaned the hiring of Howard, though I don’t think you can argue with his resume, which gives more than enough evidence of his talent for audience-friendly studio films that are, you know, actually good. The end result is something in between the old and the new, which is probably what Disney wanted all along, and what probably led to Lord and Miller being replaced. I would have liked to see the anarchy that the directing duo would have brought to this franchise, which is nearly in rigor mortis narratively (except, of course, when its not – like last year’s Last Jedi, which tinkered with the story formula and prompted a noticeably monstrous backlash from a fanbase well-known for its self-righteous temper tantrums).

Tapping cinematographer Bradford Young to shoot the film was an inspired choice, even if he does reduce the audience to squinting through unnecessary shadows, but the action set pieces pop and the film’s grungy, dishwater aesthetic feels as close to the original trilogy as any Star Wars film I’ve seen in a while. About an hour into the film, we’re introduced to a droid named L3 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Lando’s assistant and personal navigator, as well an uppity mouthpiece for the rights of all enslaved droids. But L3’s declarations of equality and militancy in the face of authority is mostly just played for laughs, both a funny, stirring example of Disney’s new tact of infusing contemporary feelings toward disenfranchised groups into Star Wars, and also a pinpoint showcase of how they fall short of true acceptance. And this is how Solo feels on the whole. A terrific entertainment, that would be even more terrific if it weren’t trying so hard to be part of the club.

 

Directed by Ron Howard