Thrilling – Space Western!
Directed by: Ron Howard
Written by: Lawrence Kasdan, Jonathan Kasdan
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke
Swift shot: There is only one Han Solo, and he is Harrison Ford. Unfortunately no amount of CGI effects and tricks would make a believable visage of a young Han Solo, as Ford is now over seventy. So, I suspended my disbelief and won’t join the chorus of naysayers crapping on Alden Ehrenreich. He did his best mimicking the swagger of the ultimate scoundrel of the galaxy . . . far, far away. And Solo was a thrill ride, comparable to Raiders of the Lost Ark in the deployment of action to dialog ratio. The story was easy to absorb and felt reminiscent of a role-playing video game, as you follow young Han through his life and how he ends up with the Millennium Falcon and Chewy as his co-pilot.
First, I have actually read the Crispin Han Solo trilogy
From the first shot, we get action, a chase sequence through the sewers of Corellia, a ship manufacturing planet that is as dark as it is bleak. Han (Ehrenreich) is racing to get back to his boss, Lady Proxima who is a kind of Fagin to Qi’ra and the other sprawlrats, as they are demeaningly referred to throughout the movie. He was sent to do a coaxium deal, coaxium is the life blood of any power, it is the fuel needed to keep a fleet aloft, and is an invaluable commodity.
Han has convinced Qi’ra that with the little bit that he’s stolen from Proxima, they can use it to bribe their way off of Correlia. That’s the plan, anyway. But in typical Han fashion, things don’t work out that way, and he and Qi’ra are separated. With little options, Han enlists in the Empire, in the hopes of becoming a real pilot someday.
And this is the part that has always fascinated me with Han’s character, there but for a few strokes of fate, Han might be on the opposite end of the blaster when he first meets Luke. Granted, Han hates the Empire, and his only true purpose is to use the Empire to get back to Qi’ra and get her off of Corellia.
Of course, Han can’t follow orders, so he is sent packing from the academy and ends up a trench grunt, fighting on Mimban, a veritable mud planet.
It’s on Mimban that Han meets Chewbacca.
As part of the invading force, he stumbles upon a group of mercenaries led by the grizzled Beckett, (Harrelson) who barely notices Han, at first, but he is impressed with Han’s tenacity and ability to survive.
Beckett’s lover, Val (Thandie Newton) and pilot, Rio (Jon Favreau) want nothing to do with the meddling Han. Eventually Han does manage to join the crew, and his first job is a train heist. It reminded me of the Firefly episode “The Train Job,” and I am sure there were more than a few nods to that short-lived space western throughout Solo. I will have to watch it again to look for them all.
Han proves his worth on the job, but things get ugly and now Beckett can’t produce the coaxium to the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate. If you know anything about the expanded universe, you know that Crimson Dawn are ruthless, and you might rather be at the wrong end of the Empire instead of them.
Han starts off his career as a mercenary under the employ of Crimson Dawn boss, Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany). And it is Han’s quick thinking that buys Beckett and his now diminished crew a little more time to prove to Vos that they aren’t completely incompetent.
They will need a ship to pull off their gambit, and eventually meet up with Lando (Donald Glover), who eventually agrees to join them on their crazy mission to stay on the good side of Crimson Dawn. Lando has a fat, annoying, ugly, bow-legged droid called L3-37. I hated this character more than any other Star Wars character, including Salacious B. Crumb, who is essentially just Jabba’s detachable penis.
L3-37 is all about droid rights, and her backstory is thankfully short-lived and we are rid of her quickly.
All the hulabaloo about Lando being a pansexual centers around her. See, Lando will screw anything, I guess it gives a whole new meaning to any port in a storm . . . PORT, get it? Yea, anyway, moving on from her now.
When everything comes to conclusion, Solo leaves you on edge wondering just how things are going to wrap up for all the peripheral characters around Han and Chewy
The music, creatures, adventure, action, and witty one-liners, are pure Star Wars!
I could have lived without L3-37 having a voice . . . and apparently I am not alone. I’ll leave that discussion for the comments.
I am not exaggerating when I say that right after the credits, I felt like going to see Solo again. I am not sure why it isn’t smashing box office sales records, other than perhaps people love Harrison Ford, and they aren’t ready to see anyone else play Solo.
I get that, and I feel them. To me, it’s like reading the comics or novels, these characters live in our hearts and minds, so it doesn’t matter who plays them. We have all played with them in our rooms, shoving the awkward non-articulating action figures into vehicles that couldn’t possibly ever become reality. In the end, that’s what all these films are, fantasies, stories dreamed up by another nerd . . . not us.
But, for this nerd, I was pleasantly surprised by Solo. And I hope more people give it a chance. I was encouraged after Rogue One, and I still have renewed “hope” that the other Star Wars stories won’t disappoint.
