Solo (2018)

I am late to the party. Story of my life. I didn't want to see this in theater but I promised colleague to watch this. It took longer than I expected but I did see it in theater. This is what you get when you know Star Wars fans. She liked this. I haven't heard her telling what she thinks about Deadpool 2. I guess this doesn't work both ways.

Star Wars fandom is so heated that I feel I have to point out why I didn't want to see in theater. I thought movie wouldn't have anything interesting to give after I saw the trailer. I liked The Last Jedi even after second viewing. I wasn't boycotting. I just didn't find Solo interesting. I thought it would be showing us what we learned in original trilogy. And I was right. It didn't have much to offer. Seeing the heroes doing the thing wasn't enough.

To be honest same story could have been told better if done edgier. Solo suffers from fact it was made for kids. It feels too much like product made by movie making factory. It is almost definition of mediocre. More I think about it the script was actually good but execution made it mediocre. I will go into spoilers to explain why I think this is.

Emilia Clarke was miscast as Qi'ra. She is Han's love interesting. She wants to leave Corellia with Han. Han manages to get out but gangsters take her back. She is saved by Dryden Vos. She was in somewhat abusive relationship with him living among ruthless gangsters. She felt she couldn't leave him because that would make other gangsters to hunt her. Then she meets her love Han who wants her to escape with him. She is in conflict of what she should do. Should she go with Han and be on the run all the time or play the game with gangster and survive as long as possible.

That is interesting character arc. I got that from what characters said and did. I didn't get that from Emilia Clarke's acting. She walked through scenes smiling and looking cute. Her character had rough life but she didn't show it. She said it. Qi'ra's character arc was only real character arc of the movie. It was mediocre because actress couldn't deliver. I wish I had seen the conflict before we saw it from her actions in the end. There were scenes which tried to bring this up but they didn't work due acting.

This is real shame because Solo was meant to launch Qi'ra movies or at least her bigger story arc in future Star Wars movies. She was only one who was set to have future adventures. Han and Chewie went to take job from Jabba the Hut which they had screwed at the beginning of New Hope. Lando went back to gambling. Qi'ra was only one who was set to go to next movie.

Emilia Clarke isn't only problem. Same acting problem and lack of emotion is elsewhere too. There is almost no impact when group members die. Rio and Beckett's wife Val died during train robbery. Both died during long action scene without any stopping for brief moment to let those deaths have any impact. After action scene Beckett acts like they had just failed a job. Not like his wife and his friend had just died. Their deaths didn't have any impact on any character. Beckett cares more about failed job. This is problem of direction not the script.

L3's death didn't have impact because of completely different reason. Lando's reaction to L3's death is so over the top it is more funny than sad. Was that meant to say something when robot's death got bigger reaction than Rio's and Val's deaths? L3's death also happened during long action scene and there was no reaction to it after action scene was over.

This was part of a bigger problem. This is a prequel. We know who will make it to original trilogy. We don't worry if they make it. We know they make it. We could worry about characters who are not in original trilogy but movie almost tells not to. Rio was Beckett's pilot. We knew he would have to die to make room for Han. L3 was also a pilot. It made Han leave pilot's chair. It had to die to make room for Han to do legendary Kessel run. What should we care about when some characters are set to survive, some events are set to happen and we are almost told not to care about others?

Qi'ra was only one with character arc. This means Han starts as Han we know and doesn't change during to movie. Closest thing to character arc is Han fails one trick at the beginning and manages to do it later. Han is there to do the things mentioned in original trilogy. Lando is there to show Han and Lando had history like mentioned in Empire Strikes Back. Script offered possibility turn Han from good guy to one who doesn't care about anyone else but it wasn't used or this had same acting problem as Qi'ra. Han is the same from start to end. His character arc happens in original trilogy.

Some people seem to hate L3. I liked it. It was comic relief and worked as such. Some say Lando was best character. He was ok except in couple scenes one being L3's death scene. Beckett was best character mainly because of Woody Harrelson's performance. I would have liked him to react death of his wife a little.

Solo is pretty much what you can expect from trailer and knowing they will show what was told in original trilogy. Script went to darker places than I expected but execution didn't go there. I complained lot here. Movie had few good moments but mostly it is as average as movie can be.