Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) Dir: Ron Howard
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Full disclosure, I have been putting off having to watch this film pretty much since it came out. I only finally gave in due to a mixture of boredom and a belief that I really should watch it for the sake of getting it out the way. Some people may have found hope knowing that Ron Howard was directing, I did not. I do not rate Howard all that much.
I knew to keep my expectations low, but as the opening scene played out, my heart sank. The film played like a fan film, and not a particularly good one. It was bad in almost every aspect. The characters were vapid, theaction sequences were an eyesore, the sets lacked originality and the writing made me want to gag.
I cannot stress enough how dull and exposition-heavy some scenes were, as well as just how terrible and predictable the writing of the film as a whole was. I was begging for the story to show me anything at all that would garner praise, and maybe one or two adequate scenes, the film was a mess. Hope came from a surprise appearance, but it turned out to be a pretty pointless moment that did absolutely nothing for the film, which was a huge let-down.
The music was not very Star Wars. I'm not saying I wanted the same soundtrack as the rest of the saga, but I wanted something better than the generic science fiction soundtrack that we were given. You could have taken the Star Wars label off the film and changed the character names and it would've been the same awful, generic sci-fi film.
Alden Ehrenreich never stood a chance in the face of Harrison Ford's iconic performances and the horrendously insipid writing. If he was playing a different person, he would have made for a fine protagonist, but, unfortunately for just about everyone involved, he was supposed to be playing one of cinema's most loved anti-heroes.
Woody Harrelson was alright, I guess. He was kind of just there for the majority of the film. It's a shame, because his character had potential, albeit mostly because of Harrelson's natural liveability, more than any character development.
I had very mixed feelings concerning what Emilia Clarke provided the film. She had a pretty good screen presence, in fairness, but her character felt a bit out of place. It was strange. She didn't feel like a Star Wars character. That said, I guess I didn't mind her. I just didn't really care either.
Donald Glover was at least charismatic, and you could see glimmers of a character in there, but I think that was more to do with Glover's acting than it was the writing of his character. Furthermore, it was kind of disappointing to see how little involvement he had in the story.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge was a rare bright spot amongst the drivel. I feel like she just made up her own lines, which was, admittedly pretty entertaining. She was genuinely the only consistently entertaining part of the film. I wish the whole film had been about her character instead.
I actually didn't hate Paul Bettany in his antagonistic role. I mean he lacked screentime, as well as any meaningful development, but the actual acting he provided was pretty sound. I would've preferred if the story had actually invested him more.
The film had a reasonable enough cast, and I wish there was a better film for them to have appeared in. Those I felt were most noteworthy included Thandiwe Newton, Joonas Suotamo, Jon Favreau and some returning actors, who weren't necessarily playing their original characters, in Warwick Davis, Anthony Daniels and Ray Park.
Overall, this could not have been more obviously a money-grab of a film. It was pretty horrendous at times. Admittedly, there were a couple scenes that did pull me in a bit, but for the most part it was barely passable, even as background viewing. I guess, the real positive I gained was knowing that I've got it out the way now.
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