Solo: A Star Wars Story

Everybody’s fusses about how this isn’t what the old Star Wars used to be, but actually it’s good. Only Abrams could afford to copy the original and to do this only once. But this entertaining and light-weight adventure makes use of a gap between the first and second trilogy in different way. Solo’s solo reminds of Firefly, but with a huge special effects budget. The cast is good and of course if they had given us a young Ford, it would be a lever higher, but you get used to it. A lot of great lines and even though the narration sometimes flounders (some strange twists due to reshoots), it still plays beautifully. And John Powell’s music is just the best! With Williams’ new theme for Han, he presents ferocious style which is just right for the series. (01/06/2018)

A solid summer diversion, but nobody wanted to see SW like that. It has fine action sequences, fine chemistry between Han and Chewbacca (whose friendship is surprisingly well thought out), and the occasional funny line or wink to past episodes, but the generic, strangely uncontained script just doesn't pull it off, and after a promising first hour, it gradually runs out of steam until it eventually flounders in uninteresting buddy conspiracy waters. It's no a dud, but the most famous space bad boy deserved a considerably more wholesome and fateful story, so in retrospect we have no choice but to bow again to Gareth Edwards, whose Rogue One is in a completely different league (which was fairly reflected in the box office)... 65% (21/09/2018)

A film about how an imperfect replica is desperately trying to get closer to the unrivalled original. I really didn't need to hear that Han Solo is based on the most run-of-the-mill cherchez le femme and a shabby heist. Unfortunately, Solo is a symptom of what SW could become if you continued this trend: a useless story generator and a silicone equivalent. It fills in the gaps, but it doesn't look particularly nice. (01/05/2019)

It’s a shame. Unlike other Star Wars spin-offs, this one has a nice chemistry between the main characters, which we probably owe to Howard, as we've known for years that this is his great strength, something we last saw a couple of years ago in Rush, when he basically built an entire film around it. He tries to do the same in Solo, but with the help of spectacular fictional worlds and all the Star Wars trappings you can think of – the only things missing perhaps are the Death Star and light sabres. That's why one wonders where the balls of the whole film and the screenwriter in particular go in the second half. It should have all ended at the 50th minute with the hijacking of the train and the appropriate character interaction. Everything that comes after that is like another film that slowly descends into an overwrought finale that is anything but entertaining. (16/09/2018)

Disney is squeezing the last bits of juice from the Star Wars universe. In this movie, the action starts before we even know it. The actors are alright, and the visual effects are flawless… what is it that I want to complain about, then? Well, maybe that the movie is a bit lifeless. In terms of the story, I don’t care at all in which direction it will unfold because I know what will happen to Han Solo anyway. If it weren’t for the casting, which as always saved Disney from a fuck-up, I wouldn’t even have watched the movie to the end. (06/03/2019)