I saw "Solo: A Star Wars Story" last night at Cannes. You know, that movie about Han Solo, his origin story if you will, and, truth be told, I believe it to be the single worst "Star Wars" movie ever made. Yes, worse than those George Lucas prequels, at least they had some kind of heart and striking visuals. This "Solo" film has nothing goin' for it. You can clearly feel confusion and angst in the frames of the Ron Howard flick, why? Well just click here, because I don't really want to explain, again, all the production chaos that happened within the film, including the firing of directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord.
The movie is basically an "attempt" to give Han Solo an origin story. Fair enough. Alden Ehrenreich, who was reported to have an acting coach on-set after Disney wasn't too happy with his acting, is not bad, but he's still miscast. The 28 year old actor just can't capture the spirit of Harrison Ford's original performance. It's as simple as that. We just don't care.
The plot has Solo and his girlfriend Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke) separated by the war. Jump three years later and Han – nicknamed Solo because he travels with no family, an orphan – meets Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and Val (Thandie Newton). A train heist they attempt early on fails. Our heroes then have to deal with and explain their failure to the villainous Dryden Voss (Paul Bettany) whose partner in crime and slaved love interest is, you guessed correctly, Qi'ra. Han, Qi'ra, Chewie and Tobias have Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) lend them the Millenium Falcon, bad idea, Han is reckless but brilliant in maneuvering his way and battling the empire. The Falcon is returned to Lando in beat-up, classic shape.
I just felt bored and irritated, but the relentless cutting will surely please Michael Bay and Marvel fans. Glover‘s Lando Calrissian, and the Millenium Falcon, are actually the highlight of this thing, so are the last 20 or so minutes which might save it from Razzie nominations, but at 143 minutes this is a ludicrous attempt at making something out of a problematic production that will become infamous very soon.
Thandie Newton‘s Val, a member of Harrelson’s crew, is underused and useless. Phoebe Waller–Bridge who voices Lando’s droid companion, is nice comedic relief. And Paul Bettany‘s villainous Dryden Vos is the WORST "Star Wars" baddie I have ever seen.
Listen folks, the film just doesn't take risks. Lord and Miller gave us hope this could be a film with a vision but Kathleen Kennedy said "NO!." Think of what Taika Waititi or James Gunn brought to Marvel, that sort of thing is missing here. There is no directorial stamp, Ron Howard has basically done this to help a friend and receive a paycheck. There's no artistry. There's predictability and lots of forced nostalgic fondness.
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Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.