I went to see this film with my family at the Picturehouse Bradford IMAX cinema in 3D.
IMDB says: During an adventure into the criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his future copilot Chewbacca and encounters Lando Calrissian years before joining the Rebellion.
In this Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13) directed movie, written by Jonathan Kasdan (The First Time, TVs Californication), Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, The Bodyguard) based on characters created by George Lucas (Raiders of the Lost Ark, American Grafitti), Alden Ehrenreich (Beautiful Creatures, Tetro) stars as Han Solo, an orphan who escapes from Corellia accidentally leaving his girlfriend Qi-ra (Emilia Clarke: Me Before You, TVs Game of Thrones) behind.
Later, after being kicked out of the Imperial Flight Academy for insubordination, when fighting on the planet Mimban as an Imperial infantryman, Han sees three theives posing as fighters, Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson: The Hunger Games, TVs Cheers), girlfriend Val (Thandie Newton: The Pursuit of Happyness, TVs Westworld) and alien Rio Durant (voiced by Jon Favreau: Chef, Iron Man) and tries to join them. Refusing at first, and getting him captured and thrown into a pit to be eaten by the beast, Han befriends the beast, his future friend and copilot wookie Chebacca (voiced by Joonas Suotamo: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and works with him to escape, catching the gang as they leave on a stolen ship. Letting them come along, due to Chewie's muscle, they agree they can join them on their plan to rob a train of coaxium. The heist goes wrong and they have to go to explain themselves to leader of Crimson Dawn, criminal Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany: Wimbledon, Avengers: Infinity War).
Han is surprised to learn that Qi'ra works for Vos and she accompanies them to a card game with smuggler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover: The Martian, TVs Community) who Han tries to win a vessel from, but Lando cheats. How will they complete their mission to get to the planet Kessel and steal some unprocessed coaxium?
Having grown up in the right era, I am a Star Wars fan and I have enjoyed the latest ones up to now, but I have to say, this one disappointed. Yes, it is a good action movie, but Han did not seem like the right character given what we all knows comes after and in parts, it seemed like an exercise in ticking boxes: Han meets Chewie, meets Lando, pilots the Millenium Falcon etc. etc. with aliens, shootouts and double-crossings. For me, it did not add anything to the Star Wars universe and unless they are setting up the Qi'ra character as a baddie in a forthcoming movie, I am not sure it was needed.
The acting was good, Bettany and Harrelson in particular, but the plot was predictable and it certainly did not need to be seen in 3D (which is a shame because I don't often see films in this format). The robot L3 gave us some comic relief, though the 'robots as slaves' did feel like the makers giving it an unsubtle politicised theme.
I don't think it was just a case of Han Solo can only be Harrison Ford, I think it is more of a case of Han Solo was not Han Solo in this film and that might be why I felt let down.
Trivia: The Golden Idol (Fertility Idol) from the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) can be seen sitting on a table in the meeting room of Dryden Vos. Harrison Ford who originally played Han Solo also played Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Director Ron Howard confirmed this Easter egg on Twitter. Harrison Ford revealed that he's seen the movie and thinks it's "phenomenal" but didn't attend the premiere with the rest of the cast because he didn't want to steal Alden Ehrenreich's moment of glory. Woody Harrelson was picked over Christian Bale for the role of Han's mentor in the film.
Tagline: Never tell him the odds. 6/10
#moviereview #Solo #Picturehouse #StarWars #movie #AldrenEhrenreich #filmreview #EmiliaClarke #DonaldGlover #film
No comments:
Post a Comment