Hello all!! This is my first official movie review (insert nervous looking emoji). I thought I'd start this blog off with a series that I hold near and dear to my heart.... STAR WARS. Now it may come as a shock to you but I am a HUGE fan of Star Wars... like huge. As in at least 75% of my clothing is Star Wars themed. So needless to say, I was pretty darn excited about this movie. I was also slightly nervous about this movie because as you can tell, that young lad on the poster is not Harrison Ford and if you're like me then you hold Harrison Ford in a very high regard. To say I was pleasantly surprised by the movie is an understatement so... LET'S GET TO IT!
Solo: A Star Wars Story is a standalone film in the Star Wars universe, following in the steps of the highly successful Rogue One. As you can clearly see it tells the story of the scruffy looking, nerf herder we have all come to love, Han Solo. As you can also see that's not Harrison Ford on the poster and you're probably like wait... what? How is there a Han Solo movie with no Harrison Ford. Well to answer that question if you don't already know the answer which you probably do, it's the story of young Han Solo so unfortunately H. Ford couldn't participate seeing as he is quite a bit older than the role required. That's where the young lad in the poster comes in. Alden Ehrenreich takes on the daunting task of becoming Han Solo and I have to say, he did a pretty fantastic job but more on that later... on to the plot!
PLOT:
As stated above this movie tells the story of young Han Solo and how he became to be the master smuggler seen in the following Star Wars films. It shows how he got caught up in the smuggling life and how these early days in his life defined who he is. We see how he meets major players in the Star Wars universe such as Lando Calrissian played brilliantly by Donald Glover and the one, the only CHEWBACCA. We are also introduced to some new characters such as the mysterious Qi'Ra played by the always delightful Emilia Clarke along with the rag-tag smuggling group led by Tobias Beckett played by Woody Harrelson and Val played by Thandie Newton. Don't worry I know what you're thinking. Who's the villain in this thing? That would be Dryden Vos played by Paul Bettany, a gangster who seems to be working for someone much higher than him (ooooooh who could it be? I know who it is, I'm just not telling because that would be a spoiler BUT if you want to be a weirdo and have the film ruined for you or you've already seen the movie then head on down to the SPOILERS part!)
We first meet young Han on the planet of Corellia where he and a slew of other youngins' are smugglers in order to be provided with food and shelter. This is where he meets Qi'ra. Han and Qi'ra dream of a life off of Corellia, exploring the galaxy but in order to do that you need some form of payment which they don't currently have. That is until Han comes across a very sought after item called coaxium. They make plans to escape but only Han is able to get past the barrier, leaving Qi'Ra on the other side. He vows to come back for her but in order to do that he needs a ship... which he doesn't have. He soon joins the imperial army in order to become a pilot so that he can save his love. This leads him to meet everyone's favorite lovable fuzball, Chewbacca. They don't get along at first, in fact, Chewey tries to kill Han until Han breaks out his impressive Shyriiwook (that's Wookie language if you're a Star Wars novice). They manage to work something out but need a way to get some payment to get a ship. That's where Beckett and his crew come in. They are working a job for Crimson Dawn where they are promised a large pay day. Han convinces the crew to let him join their team as he can be a major asset being a fantastic pilot and all. They agree to let him join only if Chewbacca comes with because come on... it's Chewbacca. Their mission is to get a large amount of coaxium to Crimson Dawn led by Dryden Vos (the villain, DUM DUM DUM). Along the way chaos ensues (as it always does in Star Wars) and they aren't able to get said coaxium as originally planned. This does not put them in good graces with Vos who threatens to kill them but Han comes up with a plan (albeit not a fully developed plan) and convinces Vos to give them one more shot. Once again they are in need of a ship and they are able to find one in the possession of the suave Lando Calrissian. What ship does he own? You may be asking. Well I'll tell you it's the.... Millennium Falcon! Yup Han's most prized possession isn't even his to begin with! So after they convince Lando and his super sassy droid, L3-37 to join their cause they then go off on a crazy adventure! I would tell you more but again... spoilers and I don't want to explain the whole movie because then why would you see it? But really you should go see it. Well there's the plot portion so on to the part you really came for.... the REVIEW.
REVIEW:
So like I said before I was kind of nervous about this film. It wasn't that I thought it wouldn't be great, it was just I didn't know how it would work in relation to the other films. I'm happy to say that my doubts were proven wrong and I ended up loving the film. I even ended up really liking Alden Ehrenreich's performance as Han which was a major cause of my doubt about this movie.
You may know Alden Ehreinrech from such movies as Rules Don't Apply or Hail Caesar but neither of those can compare to the monster that is Star Wars. Now if you don't already know, us Star Wars fans are pretty hardcore and if we don't like something, we'll make it known and I was worried this movie and Alden's performance were going to disappoint me because again... I'm a huge Star Wars fan. I'm also a huge Han Solo fan. I mean he's my favorite character besides Rey (don't tell my Dad because he has this delusion where he thinks just because the original Star Wars came out when he was young that he gets to claim Han Solo as his favorite. Sorry I wasn't born earlier Dad!) Anyway to say Alden had some big shoes to fill is an understatement. To my and many other fans' surprise, he accomplished that daunting task by inhabiting the Han we all love while also adding his own flair to the character. He was still that brash, sarcastic, lovable guy we all know and love but Alden was able to bring about a sense of vulnerability and new life into the character. He had a sort of innocence about him because this was before he had seen any of the events or tragedies that happen in the later films. We're just meeting a down-on-his-luck kid who dreams of a bigger life and gets swept up in this grand adventure. I really enjoyed Alden's performance and I think he really inhabited the character of Han Solo which is no easy feat.
Now I may be biased (I'm totally biased) but Emilia Clarke's performance as Qi'Ra had to be my favorite part of the movie. I say I'm biased because I love Emilia Clarke. Game of Thrones anyone? She's amazing. Anyway I love her character so much because you never really know where she stands or who her allegiance is to.
It's always a guessing game with her, which if you know me, I love a good guessing game. You think she's on Han's team for a bit but then you're like wait... is she working against Han? You never know which makes her such a compelling character because she has layers and a history that we don't fully know about. I really hope they make a sequel to this movie because I think they can with the way that it ended because I would love to know more about her character and what motivates her. I also loved her because I love a strong female character. You know how guys always leave action movies or superhero movies feeling like they can take on the world? It took us ladies a bit to know what that felt like because their weren't a ton of movies out there featuring these amazing, developed action heroines. Thanks to characters such as Rey, Wonder Woman, Okoye from Black Panther, heck even Lara Croft, we're able to know that feeling. With Qi'Ra I felt the same way. Sure she's flawed and may not have the best intentions at times but who does? We're all flawed and all trying to figure this thing called life out. She's doing the same thing. She's figuring out where she stands, who she stands with, what she believes in all while kicking some major bootay. Whenever my dad asks me who my favorite character is in any film series I almost always say the major female character because even if you can't relate to them 100%, you can always find some aspect of yourself in that character and it just makes you connect with them. So long story short, even if you're not a huge Star Wars fan like moi you should see this movie for the amazingness (yes I know that's not a real word) of Emilia Clarke's performance as Qi'Ra.
Another fantastic part of this movie is Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. When I heard that they had cast him as Lando I was super excited because I couldn't think of anyone better to inhabit the slick, suave gambler. Let me tell you he did not disappoint. Some of you may not be familiar with Donald Glover. I first discovered him on the cult classic, Community and knew from then on he would be a big hit. Some of you may know him as the rapper, Childish Gambino. Now I'm not a huge rap fan so I don't know a ton of his work but I have listened to This is America and that thing gets stuck in your head... in a good way. Anyway I was really excited to see how he would take on Lando and make it his own. I knew that he would add some humor to it based on his previous work and I do love me some humor. I thought he really captured the essence of Lando and added some backstory to his character. We didn't know too much about Lando from the previous films except that Han had won the Millennium Falcon from him in a gambling game. This movie allowed us to discover who Lando is and how he and Han came to be frenemies (yup I just used the word frenemy. I'm a professional). We also got to meet Lando's fantastic droid L3-37 played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Is it just me or are the droids always the best part of Star Wars? I mean look at R2-D2, BB-8, K2SO. I'm excluding C3P0 from that list because let's be honest... that guy is annoying as heck. Now L3 may not seem like such a big deal but she kind of is because she is the first ever female droid to ever be in the Star Wars series. Based on her performance and amazing one-liners, I'm like what gives? Why haven't there been more female droids? Let's get on this! These two characters really round out the cast and add some humor. I really enjoyed their scenes and loved how they worked in the bigger scope of the film.
Overall I'd have to say I really, really liked this movie. It was different enough to stand out on it's own but still captured the heart and soul of the other films. I mean it's directed by the legendary Ron Howard so it has to be good. All the characters really worked well together and I loved their interactions with one another. I also loved how we got to explore each character individually. This movie has everything... romance, action, comedy, drama, Chewbacca. I mean what more you could you ask for? I highly recommend this movie to both avid Star Wars lovers and the mediocre fan. It's just a fun, lose yourself in the action, summer movie. In fact it's the definition of a good summer movie. So what are you doing still reading this.... GO SEE IT!!
Now if you've already seen the film or are weird and like to read spoilers (honestly what kind of person are you if you like spoilers) then venture ahead because there is a plot point that I need to discuss. So for anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled this is your final warning because there are.... SPOILERS AHEAD.
Alright so I think you all know why I have gathered you here today. It has to do with a certain someone's cameo towards the end of the film. If you're not sure who I'm talking about then I will grace you with a gif of his/her face.
THAT'S RIGHT SUCKAS!! DARTH MAUL IS BACK! Now if you were like me, you were probably confused by this revelation. I bet you were like, wait... hold up... didn't he die? My thoughts exactly! If you were also like me and were too in shock to reason through this phenomenon you had a brief thought of oh yeah that makes sense, this movie obviously takes place before The Phantom Menace.... WRONG. I soon realized that's not possible because if that was the case then Han Solo would be WAY older than Darth Vader. So now you're probably back to feeling confused. Well today is your lucky day because I'm going to explain this craziness to you. Well... I'm not actually going to explain it to you because that would take forever so I'm going to post a Buzzfeed link that dumbs it down for you.
For your viewing/reading/explaining pleasure:
Here's The Deal With THAT "Solo: A Star Wars Story" Villain Cameo: https://www.buzzfeed.com/crystalro/star-wars-solo-darth-maul?utm_term=.qnXVwAMAQ
Well that's all I have to say so as the wise Porky Pig says....
Thanks for reading!!
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