“SOLO”: An underwhelming yet heartwarming tale of friendship

BY JULIA WENGIER

“SOLO: A Star Wars Story” provides “Star Wars” fans with background knowledge about the beloved character Han Solo. It delves right into his past and his interactions with other aspects of the “Star Wars” universe from the beginning, giving the audience both new information along with more detail on events already known.

Through the film, fans of the franchise gain more information on Solo’s home planet (Correllia), his gold dice, his friendship with Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian, his acquisition of the Millenium Falcon, how he got his name and the smuggle route, Kessel Run.

Some aspects of the film were highly anticipated, such as the details on the Kessel Run that have been referenced in many other movies. While discussing the Millenium Falcon (Solo’s ship), Solo has been known to say that his ship “made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.”

Other aspects were more of a surprise to audiences, such as Solo’s love interest, Qi’ra, the surprise appearance of Darth Maul and the exploration of the smugglers’ side of the “Star Wars” universe. The story is mainly focused on Solo and his fellow smugglers attempting to obtain coaxium (a type of fuel) for Dryden Vos, who can be seen as a figure of crime-authority.

Although this is mainly a tale of smuggling, there are many different plot points established. Some of the plot can only be understood with context from the other “Star Wars” movies, which can cause confusion for viewers as there is no explanation offered for some events.

Although the audience gains a significant amount of information on Solo’s background, the overall plot of the movie is difficult to truly be invested in. It was a surprise, however, that not all new characters were killed in the movie (something that occurred in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”). This choice either reflects abandoned plot lines or calls for more spin-off movies for explanations.

Han Solo is a different character at the beginning of the movie than he is at the beginning of “Star Wars: A New Hope,” and there is not much character development throughout the movie to explain how he became so “rough around the edges.” Solo stays a consistent character throughout and shows minimal change.

Alden Ehrenreich, who plays Solo, does an adequate job portraying the character that Harrison Ford had established, with the same speech patterns, sarcastic tone and stance. The dialogue, however, and delivery do not accurately represent the character that Solo is in the original “Star Wars” trilogy. This would be passable, if not encouraged, had there been a shift in the character in response to the catalysts calling for change. With many fans afraid to see a movie where Harrison Ford is not Solo, it seems that the creators of the movie didn’t try hard enough to “sell” the character.

“SOLO: A Star Wars Story” felt different from other “Star Wars” movies, in a way that was both pleasantly strange and disappointing. There was warmth in a potentially deadly fight scene and emptiness in a reunion of a separated couple. While the former was intentional, the latter was an anticlimactic scene of disappointment and expectations that were never meant.

Photo courtesy of the Star Wars franchise