Movie Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story

We saw ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ last night with low expectations and came out of the movie with differing opinions. You can enter your rating for ‘Solo’ and all other 2018 movies at the end of the review. For an explanation of how we rate and review movies, check out this blog, but let’s get into the latest Star Wars movie…

Jeff (74/100): Ah man, this is a tough one for me. ‘Solo’ exceeded my expectations, as I was expecting something between a 65 and 70, but it still wasn’t anything great. I felt the same way leaving the theater as I did when I saw ‘Furious 7’ a few years ago. It’s fast-paced, a lot of fun but something just felt a little off about it. With ‘Furious 7’, it was mostly how fucking corny the movie was, but with ‘Solo’ it was how messy a lot of the cohesion of the movie turned out. The first act is rough and, honestly, was a total bore for me. Part of the problem with these one-off Star Wars movies is the fact that they have to introduce a ton of new characters early on. It really bogs the movie down. With an absurd length of nearly 2 hours and 30 minutes, it feels really flat and lifeless for a good early chunk of the movie. Shortening the beginning would have served the final product well.

Luckily, when the movie finally gets going and the action explodes off the screen, it is worth spending the time watching. The movie really never hits a clean stride of consistency, like ‘Rogue One’ did in its final act, but it didn’t get in the way of the movie being a good time. The ending was satisfying enough for me, but the entire third act felt like it was one tip in either direction away from falling apart completley. It’s a change of pace from the Jedi-centric Star Wars movies of the past, so I did appreciate that. The humor and charm land better than it did in ‘The Last Jedi’ (a movie I do like, please save your slander). There were some elements that they added to the Universe that I didn’t particularly care for, but the cringe level was much lower than I expected. With all that said, it just really is a bit of a mess, which shouldn’t be surprising based on the disastrous production of the movie.

Now the big question: how was Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo? He was okay. There wasn’t one instance where I really thought I was watching the real Han Solo. He had some mannerisms down, but he just wasn’t Han Solo, plain and simple. I wanted to give him a pass and just accept his portrayal of the character, but there was one problem: Donald Glover. This dude nailed the role of Lando and did so in pretty impressive fashion. There were moments where it sounded like Billy Dee Williams was back voicing the character of Lando. People said that it was wild to expect Ehrenreich to do a perfect Han Solo impression, but Donald Glover did an amazing one of Lando, so it really overshadowed the lead role. There needs to be a Lando Calrissian movie with Donald Glover and it needs to be an ‘Ocean’s 11’ style heist movie with Steven Soderbergh behind the camera.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie enough to give it a passing grade, like I have with the last few ‘Fast and the Furious’ movies. It’s an explosive, lightning fast and fun movie that lacks the qualities of a truly great movie. I am pretty comfortable with a 74/100, but I could see it dropping a tad. It isn’t bad, it isn’t great, it’s just okay.

KenJac (84/100): The Good: ‘Solo’ blew away my expectations. I was basically grinning from ear to ear from the start of the second act to the end. Most of all, it absolutely delivered in every way that I was disappointed in by ‘Rogue One’. The characters were fleshed out nicely, you felt empathy and a degree of connection to them and felt satisfied at the ending. There was a perfect degree of fan service that was never overwhelming and never felt cringeworthy. It was fun, exciting and you’d be hard-pressed to find a dull moment after the setup of the movie finishes. I don’t think many Star Wars fans will be disappointed by it and I believe it has more mainstream appeal as well. Overall, it’s a funny, thrilling blast of a movie that is way more than I could have asked for.

The Bad: Definitely about 15 to 20 minutes too long, but It somehow left me wanting more screen time for certain characters while also wondering where the time had gone. It could also have used a more cohesive antagonist, however that may be due to the setup for the possible sequel. Ehrenreich turned out to be a perfectly serviceable Han Solo, but he also sort of got blown away by the performances of Donald Glover (expected) and Emilia Clarke (totally unexpected). I think my only other complaint is that I wish it was more of a Star Wars themed heist movie as opposed to a Star Wars movie with a heist theme. The balance of the priorities there was obvious.

—
What did you rate ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’? You can submit your rating here. With an early audience score of 81/100, ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ is Officially Buttered (a 69/100 average or higher) by Lights, Camera, Barstool. We will be reviewing some more new movies next week and getting Trillballins’ score as we go in-depth on ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ on next Thursday’s Lights, Camera, Barstool, which you can subscribe to here.

What do you rate all of the movies from 2018? Click the links below to submit your rating for everything released so far this year.

January: https://goo.gl/forms/nNzX19HbebeQMUAA3
February: https://goo.gl/forms/DWG9TJMISLzUunsu2
March: https://goo.gl/forms/k0dL5ozOrhwJ2Bk03
April: https://goo.gl/forms/Z218hqWq3XGyqi9C3
May (‘Solo’ included): https://goo.gl/forms/f5aYcpJHnBMmkcs52

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, follow us on Instagram and join in on the conversation on our Reddit.