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Before I start I must confess I was not looking forward to this film. I didn’t necessarily think it was needed. Han Solo its such an iconic film character (and one of my favourites) that this film could’ve tarnished that character, or kids today wouldn’t know about Harrison Ford and just know Alden Eindedhfjfbfffhf as Solo, and thats kinda sad. It’s also hypocritical of me, because my biggest complaint about Star Wars fanboys is there hold over the original films. Fans of the original moan about the prequels because its too different from the originals ‘theres too much cgi’ ‘the story is confusing’ ‘Jar Jar is annoying’ ‘sand’. And whilst these are fair enough, the whole political backstory is quite long and there is too much cgi when you think that everyone was made on set in the originals. However the original trilogy had its problems too. For me, the action is terrible, the lightsaber battles are so dead, Return of the Jedi is basically a New Hope, and Ewoks are worse than Jar Jar! So yeah, I was holding onto the nostalgia of having a new actor play Han, but I didn’t need to be worried because the film was actually ok.
On the whole it was a good Star Wars movie, not as good as Rogue One in terms of films being out of the timeline, but not the worst film we’ve seen from the Star Wars franchise coughthelastjedicough or maybe coughreturnofthejedicough. There was a lot of action that was very much needed as we was watching a Star Wars films that lacked any references to the Force or lightsaber duels, however there was certainly enough of the Star Wars universe to please fans.
Alden Ehrenreich grew on me as Solo, whilst it wasn’t an outright impression of him there were definitely the same mannerisms as the og Han Solo. He lacks the weight and stardom that Ford brought to the role but in his first film, in the footsteps of one of the biggest actors and characters I was impressed with what he done in the role. Woody Harrelson was brilliant as the lead thief on their mission. Emilia Clarke was equally impressive as Kira, very cunning, strong and manipulative. It was good to see her in another action film that didn’t flop like Terminator. Donald Glover was good as Lando, apparently the writers have said that Lando is Bi in the film and that fans are calling for that to be shown in the films or it’s pointless to mention. I thought it was quite obvious in the film that is what they were doing to his character. The only annoying character was the droid L3-37, I thought it was too similar to K-2SO but not as funny. As good as Paul Bettany was the villain, he didn’t have enough screen time and that was a shame.
3/5
Overall it wasn’t as bad as what you’ve probably heard. There were no special moments or anything that stood out but it didn’t do anything too bad that made you want to leave. It was a fairly standard origin film that won’t last long in the memory of Star Wars fans, but certainly isn’t the worst film from the franchise.