Wednesday, May 30, 2018

SOLO: A Frightfully Average Story Wars Story


     Star Wars has been of course recognized as one of the biggest movie franchises of all time, which is undeniable. However, with this new movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story, they’re tackling something that is different. Not only are they doing a prequel movie, but a movie based around one of their most iconic characters, in the form of Han Solo. On paper, it may sound like something with a lot of potential, however, Solo, while not a terrible movie has unfortunately becomes a bit of a disappointment, being an all-around average film with not much excitement as there could have been for a character like Han Solo.
     The film of course centers on Han Solo, and shows the early days of his career as a smuggler, going on adventures, meeting up with characters like Chewbacca and Lando and just around the time as the empire is starting to take over the galaxy. The film has a basic story with him teaming up with a group of bounty hunters and going on a missions and trying to the save rest of the Galaxy, which could provide as a fun simple romp through the galaxy with Han and his crew. Where this movie suffers big time however that prevents it from being all that exciting boils down to three words, BY, THE, NUMBERS. Solo becomes a rather dull romp with a story that is incredibly predictable and has very few surprises woven into the film and being too simplistic. Granted, it is a hard task to create a movie that isn’t very predictable when you all know too well that Han Solo is going to make it out okay, knowing that it is a prequel film, however the film doesn’t add too much as a film, it’s a simple team getting together and rebel story and there’s not much to it outside of it. There aren’t any real risks taken with this film compared to most other Star Wars movies, which makes it honestly not very exciting with it going the exact route you would expect a movie like this to go. Even if the story was predictable, the film doesn’t have enough to sustain it further, as the writing is bland, with moments of humor that don’t land, characters that aren’t really fleshed out that entire well, and a lack of style and direction this film could have benefitted from big time. It also does not help at all that the film has a huge pacing problem, it is two hours and fifteen minutes long and it feels like a good portion of the movie could have been cut out. Rather than feeling like a three act structured movie, the film near the ends, feels more like it has an unneeded fourth act. With so much happening throughout most of the movie, there is a point where the film could easily wrap up, but it ends up going on for another 20 minutes and it’s not a very exciting 20 minutes. It just feels like Solo was wasted potential on a story that could be good, but it just became one of the most basic Star Wars films ever made.

     As mentioned earlier, the characters of Solo are somewhat lacking in this department as well, however, it isn’t to say that the actors aren’t trying their best with the material given to them. For all the flack Alden Ehrenreich has gotten for taking on the part of Han Solo, he actually delivers a decent performance. He does come across as a younger version of the character and while he isn’t given that much to work with, he does well with giving off the impression of the classic smuggler character Harrison Ford was known for. The rest of the new additions from Woody Harrelson to Emilia Clarke, while lacking as characters themselves, they are doing their best and making their characters a bit more entertaining than the script would originally let them to be. The highlight of the cast is easily Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. Not only is the character authentic to the original version and Glover is extremely entertaining as Lando, but he is easily a part of some of the best scenes in the entire movie, especially an incredibly well edited and fascinating card game sequence with Han that might be the best moment in the entire film. As for the rest of the cast, while the actors do their best and all the characters have their moments, they kind of seem like throw away characters as they’re only there for a bit and as soon as they leave, most of them don’t leave that much of an impact, with the exception of Lando’s droid friend who has a nice subtle element to her character that gives a bit more impact to the film. The only other true standout of this character wise is a surprise cameo that was not seen coming and was actually fascinating to see, of course it shouldn’t be spoiled, but it is certainly a jaw dropping appearance if anything. But other than that, the characters do save this movie somewhat; they don’t have as much impact as they should have unfortunately due to the lack of development given to them.
     With any star wars movie, it should be expected that the film should be visually impressive in a lot of ways, and for the most part Solo does deliver. The film is visually impressive in terms of art direction, with every set, character design and just over-all aesthetics having the feeling of classic star wars. The film continues on a great trend of modern Star Wars movies using practical effects and it delivering on looking authentic, along with having some incredibly good use of CGI at point. From the sounds of it, this film seems like the perfect visually impressive Star Wars movie, however, there is an element that kind of kills It, which is an incredibly lackluster color palette. The film is shot way too dark and the impressive visuals feel honestly lifeless with the film looking too murky and gritty for its own good. There is a serious lack of color for this movie, which would be okay if this movie had a tone that matches it, but honestly, the film tone strives more for exciting and fun and this color palette does not match it at all. It could be assume that the film is trying to have a lesser color palette due to the film taking place during the reign of the empire, however Rogue One took place years after this film and it had a perfectly balance and bright color palette, so that would not be a good excuse for this film’s lack of color. It is a shame that the color palette tarnishes this films aesthetics because everything else seems right into place from the creature and set designs to the music and easter eggs that makes the film very aesthetically pleasing. It’s not an awful looking film by any means, but seeing one element that makes the film look too dark, gives a film an honestly lacking visually look.
    Solo, while far from a terrible star wars story, is honestly an unremarkable one. It has some element that makes it enjoyable for a single watch, with some fun moments and neat characters making it a bit more redeemable. But none of that can save a movie that is very lacking with a dull script, poor pacing and an unimpressive color palette that make the film less exciting than it could have been. For Star Wars fans, there is some to be enjoyed enough to view it at least once, however outside of that, it seems like a movie some could easily skip and they wouldn’t really miss much. Solo is an average star wars story and nothing more but also nothing less.

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