JUNE 6, 2018
By now, it has become known among even casual moviegoers that “Solo: A Star Wars Story” will turn out to be the first flop in the “Star Wars” franchise. The film cost $250 million to produce and $150 million to promote, and, based on box office both domestic and international so far, it seems highly unlikely that “Solo” is going to make its money back.
This is a shame, because “Solo” is not that bad a film. There have been far worse “Star Wars” films (“The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones,” I’m talking to you). I mean, it’s not great like “A New Hope” or “The Empire Strikes Back,” but it’s an entertaining night at the movies and far less annoying than “Deadpool 2.”
“Solo” is the second stand-alone film in the “Star Wars” canon (after the much superior “Rogue One”) and tells the origin story of Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich), both how he met Chewbacca and how he became involved in the “Star Wars” universe.
There’s a lot to like in “Solo.” First of all, it’s the best Chewbacca performance ever. (And Disney, you are free to quote me on that.) If you are a Chewy fan, all hail the man in the furry suit, Finnish actor Joonas Suotamo, who brings not only the famous growl but also a physicality here that I’d never seen in Chewy before.
The film’s second plus (and it is a very big plus) is Donald Glover, who portrays the young Lando Calrissian, the charismatic smuggler who was famously portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.” Glover, coming off a top flight hosting of “Saturday Night Live,” two Emmy wins for his FX series “Atlanta” and a #1 single on the Billboard charts as his alter ego Childish Gambino, has charisma to spare, and you can really believe that he will age into the frisky Lando that was embodied by Williams.
And the film’s third plus (and not to be underestimated) is Lando’s cape closet. I’m serious — this closet is jaw-dropping. There are casual capes, formal capes, brunch capes — whenever the action lags, which it does time to time, I just wished that the film would go back to that cape closet. It’s like “Project Runway” in space.
If “Solo” has a problem (and it does), it’s Ehrenreich’s performance as Han Solo. It’s not that Ehrenreich is a bad actor — he’s really terrific in the Coen brothers’ “Hail, Caesar!” — but here he delivers a standard superhero performance. He’s fine throughout, but, unlike Glover, he doesn’t display any of the characteristics of the screen icon that his character will become. Haters on Twitter have been obsessed that Ehrenreich doesn’t look anything like Harrison Ford. Okay, but Frank Langella looked nothing like Richard Nixon in “Frost/Nixon,” and he knocked it out of the park. The problem here is that Ehrenreich doesn’t embody the essential quirkiness of Han Solo that we have come to know from Harrison Ford’s performance. Yes, Solo displays superhero qualities, but he’s also a goof, childish at times, and a hot mess when it comes to strategy, and Ehrenreich embodies none of these qualities.
The other major problem with “Solo” is that it feels safe. This didn’t have to be. The producers had originally hired the directing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who had successfully helmed “The LEGO Movie” and the “21 Jump Street” films, which had excited fans who hoped that they might bring some much-needed irreverence to the “Star Wars” franchise. For whatever reason, Lord and Miller were fired, and the producers brought in Oscar-winning director Ron Howard to take over. Whatever you think about Ron Howard, quirkiness is not in his wheelhouse, and “Solo,” under his direction, feels incredibly safe.
A Lord and Miller “Solo” might have been a disaster, but it would likely have been a fascinating disaster. There’s little that’s fascinating about the Ron Howard “Solo” with which we are left, and unfortunately the film’s tepid box office returns only affirm that.
GRADE: B-
