'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Review

If you haven't seen it yet, a word of warning, but why are you reading this? Spoilers!

Nowadays I go into the cinema with the same expectations as I would when going to the bathroom with a box of popcorn and a diet cola. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching movies, but I also enjoy relieving myself.

That said, I enjoyed Solo very much. Ehrenreich played a lovable rogue that did some justice to the role. The story tracks his rise from the slums of Corellia under some kind of warlord, through the imperial ranks until he deserts them and is picked up by a crew of smugglers.

Unfortunately, his character development was exceptionally accelerated, with a three-year time lapse being the attempt to explain it.

One thing that I notice more and more in movies is the number of references thrown in. I blame the Marvel cinematic universe mainly for this, as they love their Easter eggs. I assume marketers caught on to the fact that fans love to share and talk about Easter eggs, thus ensuring that references will infect almost every movie franchise. This is a minor gripe I have of course, and one reveal, in particular,—was—quite exciting: Darth Maul.

I am a fan of the extended universe’s portrayal of Darth Maul. I loved the character ever since I saw him wield the lightsaber staff, mesmerizing me with his deadly dancing through The Phantom Menace. I am looking forward to seeing if this is the precursor to a Kenobi movie, as another Solo movie would be overdoing it.

The portrayal of Solo's instincts, his ability to understand situations, was interesting. Every time you thought he was being naive he would surprise you, in spite of his vested interest in other characters. Indeed, the only character he did not seem to betray was Chewbacca, with whom I assume he felt he owed his life to (and vice versa).

Woody Harrelson's Beckett was another interesting character, and probably my favorite. He was an interesting foil for Ehrenreich, not quite a mentor, but a platform for Solo to show the audience he always had a good measure of people.

This was not going to be a Solo movie without the iconic Millenium Falcon and Solo did not disappoint on that end. Lando Calrissian had a huge role and the love triangle between Lando, Han, and the Falcon was a major plot device. Donald Glover did his part well, as did his co-pilot, the droid L3, voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Now, this is where things get very dark. The droids in the Star Wars universe have always been objects, aside from R2 and C3PO, and are generally treated as such. L3 is introduced as an advocate for droid rights, starting a minor rebellion on a slave world. Depicted as slaves on the world of Kessel, droids wore restraining bolts, which she removed as she fought to free them. Unfortunately, during the fighting, she is destroyed by blaster fire.

Lando mourns her death grievously, taking some blaster fire to retrieve her body. Once she is saved though, the crew realize they need her brains to navigate through a particularly difficult area of space. So they take her apart and download her into the ship. In essence, she became the very thing she fought to free other droids from, being forgotten from that point onwards.

The quality of the movie noticeably lowered there on out, but it still did enough to earn my recommendation.

This review was written by one of our contributors, Sheepdog. Be sure to check back to our blog regularly for other reviews.