Solo: A Star Wars Story
Han Solo leads Lucasfilm's second standalone Star Wars film, passing Harrison Ford's role down to Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!). The film follows Han and Chewbacca before they joined the Rebellion. Donald Glover (Atlanta) plays young Lando Calrissian.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, directors of The LEGO Movie, originally helmed the film. However, partway through shooting, the pair was taken off the film due to creative differences. The project was then given to Oscar-winning director Ron Howard.
- Director:
- Ron Howard ('Rush', 'Frost/Nixon', 'A Beautiful Mind', 'Apollo 13')
- Writer:
- Jon KasdanLawrence Kasdan
- Cast:
- Alden EhrenreichWoody HarrelsonEmilia ClarkeDonald GloverThandie NewtonPhoebe Waller-BridgeJoonas SuotamoPaul Bettany
Reviews & comments
Flicks, Daniel Rutledge
flicksGrowing up watching Star Wars movies, I don't remember ever wondering how Han and Chewbacca met. Nothing in this origin story of one of my favourite cinematic bromances enhances it or gives it a more powerful meaning. There is a lot of obedient connecting of dots going on in Solo: A Star Wars Story when those dots just do not need to be connected.
Flicks, Luke Buckmaster
flicksWith Solo: A Star Wars Story, director Ron Howard has ditched the heavy-handed, space soap opera approach of recent installments for an old fashioned Saturday matinee spectacle. For filmmakers such as The Last Jedi's Rian Johnson, who was four years old when Star Wars: A New Hope opened in cinemas in 1977, tapping into nostalgia is chic and zeitgeisty: part of the contemporary sensibility. Given Howard actually made movies the younger gen filmmakers get nostalgic for (including Cocoon, Willow and Night Shift) it is perhaps unsurprising that his venture into the galaxy far, far away feels more genuine in spirit, and less like an exercise machine-tooled to evoke memories and pre-existing sentiment.
Much better than critics say...
...at least in my opinion! I actually enjoyed the story told here, as it fills in many details we never knew (and didn't know we wanted to). I liked the Solo/Chewbacca relationship and it was pretty cool for Director Ron Howard to ante up on the 'who shot first?' meme. The female characters are good and Glover is great as Lando - my only (minor) issue was...
a Fun ride
I've watched all the Star Wars films and I'm a fan just not a FAN. I'm not fanatical. I liked this film a lot as a look back into Han's origin story but mostly just as a great science fiction action flick. It's a whole lot of fun, fast paced and full of great characters it doesn't have to be more than that. I was entertained, it did its job for $11 I have...
Vulture
pressYou can feel the two versions of Solo: A Star Wars Story tugging at each other throughout.
Variety
pressThough burdened with a slow start and enough thirsty fan-service to power Comic-Con's Hall H for a decade, it has a kicky, kinetic heist movie at its heart, and its action sequences are machine-tooled spectacles of the first order.
Total Film
pressFar better than we had any right to expect. Thrilling set-pieces, spine-tingling iconography and a Han/Chewie bromance to savour.
The New York Times
pressIt doesn't take itself too seriously, but it also holds whatever irreverent, anarchic impulses it might possess in careful check.
The Guardian
pressWith [Ron] Howard at the controls, the movie is a fun-fuelled entertainment.
Stuff
pressDelivers exactly what it promises. It is a very competent and, at times, riotously enjoyable film.
Rolling Stone
pressHoward and the Kasdans play the series game without ever raising the stakes, defaulting to dull and dutiful when they might have blasted off into creative anarchy.
Hollywood Reporter
pressDespite the intermittent lags, the production proves to be more than a salvage operation thanks mainly to those engagingly choreographed performances, led by an irresistibly charismatic title turn from Alden Ehrenreich.
Flicks, Daniel Rutledge
flicksGrowing up watching Star Wars movies, I don't remember ever wondering how Han and Chewbacca met. Nothing in this origin story of one of my favourite cinematic bromances enhances it or gives it a more powerful meaning. There is a lot of obedient connecting of dots going on in Solo: A Star Wars Story when those dots just do not need to be connected.
Flicks, Luke Buckmaster
flicksWith Solo: A Star Wars Story, director Ron Howard has ditched the heavy-handed, space soap opera approach of recent installments for an old fashioned Saturday matinee spectacle. For filmmakers such as The Last Jedi's Rian Johnson, who was four years old when Star Wars: A New Hope opened in cinemas in 1977, tapping into nostalgia is chic and zeitgeisty: part of the contemporary sensibility. Given Howard actually made movies the younger gen filmmakers get nostalgic for (including Cocoon, Willow and Night Shift) it is perhaps unsurprising that his venture into the galaxy far, far away feels more genuine in spirit, and less like an exercise machine-tooled to evoke memories and pre-existing sentiment.
Vulture
pressYou can feel the two versions of Solo: A Star Wars Story tugging at each other throughout.
Variety
pressThough burdened with a slow start and enough thirsty fan-service to power Comic-Con's Hall H for a decade, it has a kicky, kinetic heist movie at its heart, and its action sequences are machine-tooled spectacles of the first order.
Total Film
pressFar better than we had any right to expect. Thrilling set-pieces, spine-tingling iconography and a Han/Chewie bromance to savour.
The New York Times
pressIt doesn't take itself too seriously, but it also holds whatever irreverent, anarchic impulses it might possess in careful check.
The Guardian
pressWith [Ron] Howard at the controls, the movie is a fun-fuelled entertainment.
Stuff
pressDelivers exactly what it promises. It is a very competent and, at times, riotously enjoyable film.
Rolling Stone
pressHoward and the Kasdans play the series game without ever raising the stakes, defaulting to dull and dutiful when they might have blasted off into creative anarchy.
Hollywood Reporter
pressDespite the intermittent lags, the production proves to be more than a salvage operation thanks mainly to those engagingly choreographed performances, led by an irresistibly charismatic title turn from Alden Ehrenreich.
Much better than critics say...
...at least in my opinion! I actually enjoyed the story told here, as it fills in many details we never knew (and didn't know we wanted to). I liked the Solo/Chewbacca relationship and it was pretty cool for Director Ron Howard to ante up on the 'who shot first?' meme. The female characters are good and Glover is great as Lando - my only (minor) issue was...
a Fun ride
I've watched all the Star Wars films and I'm a fan just not a FAN. I'm not fanatical. I liked this film a lot as a look back into Han's origin story but mostly just as a great science fiction action flick. It's a whole lot of fun, fast paced and full of great characters it doesn't have to be more than that. I was entertained, it did its job for $11 I...
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