Darryl_Lazakar01 Review of Solo: A Star Wars Story

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

A potentially good heist movie ruined by horrible pacing.

[6/10 · 2 June 2018]

*WARNING! MILD SPOILERS AHEAD*

So far, I enjoyed all of Disney's Star Wars movies. TFA is a great movie, TLJ is a pretty good, but admittedly a divisive movie, and Rogue One is very enjoyable to watch (keep in mind that I haven't watched SW Episode 1-6, but I do know some of the characters and their backgrounds).

Solo, however, is a misfire. It's not a bad movie overall, but rather a forgettable one.

Pros:

• Cast

Alden Ehrenreich does a good job as Han Solo, he totally fits the role. Emilia Clarke did a good job as Qi'ra. Donald Glover did a fantastic job as Lando Calrissian, and has the best performance among the cast. Woody Harrelson and Paul Bettany are great as Beckett and Dryden, but were totally wasted in this movie (I'll explain later). Jon Faverau did a brief but good job as Rio. Lastly, Thandie Newton did a good job as Val.

• Plotline

The best thing about the story is how the movie is centered around Han Solo and his first adventures with Chewbacca. I love how Han and Chewie first met and their interaction is great to look at. I also love the chemistry between Han and Qi'ra. The interaction between Han and Beckett (Woody Harrelson) is also nice.

• CGI

The CGI is, as always a feast to the eyes, though there are a couple shots that looked unrealistic.

Cons:

• Characters

The characters in this movie, however, have little development, as the result I don't really care anyone in this movie (except Lando, he's cool). Han Solo being Han Solo, nothing was added to his personality. Qi'ra is a great character, but greatly underutilized. Lando is great, but like Qi'ra, he could have done so much more. Beckett is... just there, nothing interesting other than he didn't trust anyone. Dryden is a stereotypical 1D villain who's evil, threatening, but no depth. Lastly, L3, played by Phobe Waller-Bridge is not a good droid character. She's super annoying with her "robot-rights" rant.

• Pacing

This is where the movie suffers. The movie is so inconsistent with what they're trying to do. On one point is a fun, fast paced heist movie, but later shifts to a slower, more serious movie. The 3rd act really suffers because of this, and it ends up anticlimactic, and boring. At one point I was into it, but then the movie screeched to a halt and I let out a couple of yawns at that point. It's that inconsistent.

• Story

The story didn't add anything new to the Star Wars lore, nor it adds to the main story. So even if you didn't watch this movie you'll be fine. There's nothing to worry about missing a plot detail in the original-prequel trilogies.

• Action

Surprisingly, there's not much action scenes in this movie. But when they do happen, it's pretty fun. The problem is that there's no wow factor in it. There's nothing mind-blowing about it, there's nothing that makes me jump in excitement, it's just fun, but only surface level of fun, with no lasting impact.

Overall, I'm pretty disappointed with Solo. It's not a bad movie, it's just very forgettable. I honestly felt that it could be better, it could be fun, but the pacing killed it for me. For casual moviegoers like me, you can watch this movie and have fun with it, but for Star Wars fans, I do feel that you'll be disappointed with this movie.

Final Score: 6/10

PS: Also, whoever's working at the Indonesian censorship department that edits this movie should be fired. I mean really? Censoring a kiss?! Twice?!!! And even the cuts were badly edited. Indonesian censorship in a nutshell indeed. -_-