Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) – Encore Review 5

“I’m telling ya, you will never have a deeper sleep than curled up in a Wookie’s lap.” – Rio Durant

Number of Times Seen – 6 (24 May 2018, 30 May 2018, 13 Sep 2018, 30 Oct 2018, 14 Jan 2019 and 19 May 2019)

Link to original review – Here, Here, Here, Here and Here

Brief Synopsis – A young street rat in Corellia tries to find a way to escape his dead end life and reach the stars.

My Take on it – This is one of the least favored films of the series by many fans, yet I think it’s among the best.

This film is able to take a main character from the original trilogy and build an origin story for him set wityhin the world of A Galaxy Far Far Away that we have all loved over the decades.

Alden Ehrenreich does a wonderful job doing an impersonation of Harrison Ford as Han Solo while also bringing his own personality to the story line.

They manage to give us so many connections to the original trilogy that work so well within the framework of this story that allows us to see how this character came to be the lovable scoundrel that we meet in a bar on Mos Eisley years later.

Due to this film’s lack of box office bang, the original idea to turn this into a film series has been smothered which is such a shame since this is a series with so much potential to give is a bunch of fun and entertaining stories in the world created by George Lucas 42 years ago this week.

The way that this film shows us how Han Solo got his name, his partnership with Chewie, his rivalry and friendship with Lando, his blaster, his dice on the rear view mirror, his ship The Millenium Falcon, his profession as a smuggler, the pronunciation of his name, his fame for making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs and above all his cocky attitude among other things is shown here so well.

The film is action packed and something is always happening that it requires multiple watches to really grasp so much of what is happening throughout.

This may not be the best film of the series, but it manages to get the atmosphere right and easily transports us to that galaxy far far Away while staying intriguing the entire time.

This film is the most removed from the stories told in all 9 of the other films and that actually works to its advantage because it is able to give us some great sequences taking place in the same workd as the rest, yet distances itself from the storyline dealing with the Skywalkers and the Jedi yet still fits so well into the atmosphere created for us over the years.

The way that this film shows his loyalty to his friends and his job is great to watch especially since it lets us get a better understanding of his future actions.

Really hope that they don’t stop making these “side-tangent” Star Wars films because they add so much character to the overall storyline.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The novelization goes on to show that the Cloud Riders pass on the coaxium given to them by Han to none other than Saw Gerrera and Jyn Erso. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10) (no change from original review)