There have been very few franchises that have been formative in the lives of many people as Star Wars. Despite the franchise only entering slightly later in my life than it should have, I can understand fully why George Lucas’ masterpiece of a space opera has been the definitive moment in the childhoods of multitudes of people around the world. The Original Trilogy (1977 to 1983) was absolutely incredible, and despite being far less impressive, the Prequel Trilogy (1999 to 2005) had their rough charms. The Sequel Trilogy, which we are currently awaiting the final chapter for, has been extraordinary, and a brilliant adaptation of the sensibilities of the original saga to a modern day perspective. However, I recently found an article written on how Lucasfilm has started to develop Star Wars into its own cinematic universe, much like how Marvel has done over the past decade. This is clear when considering that there have been two films that are standalone pieces ­- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and now Solo: A Star Wars Story. These films don’t only share the quality of only being partially related to the main saga – they are also both possibly the lowest point in the history of Star Wars (a flippant statement, considering Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace forced the irreconcilable Jar Jar Binks on the unsuspecting world). The reason for this isn’t because either of these films are bad. It’s just that they are not particularly great either, and they lack something even the maligned prequel films had: magical charm. Solo is a tricky film because it is enjoyable – but it is nothing close to the gargantuan modern-day masterpieces that were The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

I don’t need to speak about the entire storyline of Star Wars, what happened before and what is still to come in the chronology of the saga, because that is already well-documented (also, you can safely assume that this review will be void of any spoilers – I couldn’t spoil this film, even if I tried – precisely because nothing particularly interesting happens throughout). However, because apparently there was a campaign to get a Han Solo standalone film made, a fact I still feel was more a corporate decision rather than one motivated by fans (and I would be untruthful if I said I feel that this film just blossomed out of some witty wordplay, a “Han Solo solo movie”). Moreover, despite Harrison Ford being absolutely perfect in every way with what he did with Han Solo in the main saga, including his absolutely heartbreaking but thrilling send-off in The Force Awakens, there was still a need to provide more content towards this character (and as an enormous proponent of Han Solo – not only considering Ford’s performance the best in Star Wars history, but also the character being the best overall figure in the entirety of the Star Wars universe – I did not want anything more from this character than what we have received already). Solo, essentially, exists for no other reason than to fill in some gaps in the story set out by the Original Trilogy, showing some formative moments in Solo’s career as an outlaw, such as how he came into possession of the Millenium Falcon, as well as his oft-praised feat of doing the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. These are notable elements of the character that are indicated in the original films (as well as the recent main-saga trilogy) but never explicitly shown, but for a reason: they didn’t need to be shown. However, regardless of my gripes with this, Solo follows the titular bandit as he teams up with a rag-tag bunch of rogues and fiends, such as his girlfriend Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke), his mentor Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), noted gambler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) and his iconic sidekick, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo, once again taking over the role from Peter Mayhew), as they go on a journey to retrieve special material for the space gangster Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany). The gang meets peril and danger on their journey (because this film needed to obviously fill up the two hours that were not blatant fan-service with an actual story), and we get another entertaining glimpse into the galaxy far, far away.

Let us just be clear: I did not dislike Solo, quite the contrary – it is one of the better mainstream blockbusters of the year so far. My ambivalence towards this film is more due to the fact that I expected so much more, considering Star Wars has always been a beacon of exceptional quality and originality. For all of his faults, absolutely no one could build universes like George Lucas and his merry band of collaborators who have worked together over the past forty years to create films that are astonishing, and a world that is intricate and filled with pleasant details. I would even go so far as to say that in this regard, Lucas can rival the unimpeachably brilliant J.R.R. Tolkien in how he constructs his expansive fantasy world (albeit, not quite as detailed). My problem with Solo is not that it is a bad film – its just an entirely unnecessary one. I understand that the intention was to explore characters and stories outside the realm of the main, ongoing saga, and I admire that. Rogue One was not great, but it did tell a somewhat original story (its main shortcomings were in the execution). Solo was unneeded, because there was plenty of Han Solo in the main saga before, and his role was absolutely pitch-perfect, with Ford bringing everything the audience could possibly want to this character. I fully support films that focus on being standalone stories about a younger Master Yoda, or Obi-Wan Kenobi’s life between the two main sagas (or essentially, how he went from Ewan McGregor to Alec Guinness). In fact, I feel like Solo focused on the wrong character entirely, one that was actually present in the film, Lando Calrissian, who could have easily made a fascinating subject of his own film. The problem isn’t only that Solo was focused on a character that didn’t require any more exposure – it focused on a character whose background was already well-stated, and his ultimate fate was already known. Therefore, this film, as mentioned before, was simply an attempt to fill in the gaps and visually represent moments that did not need it. It was an attempt to bank on the success of one of the most beloved characters in the saga, without actually constructing an entirely new story to go with it. Once again, I did not dislike Solo. For all intents and purposes, it is a good film. It just isn’t one we really needed (or wanted, actually).

I won’t deny that despite not agreeing with the choice to give Han Solo is own film at the beginning, there was one factor that actually excited me about this film in the beginning stages, the individuals who were brought on to direct it, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. I have grown very fond of this directing duo, whether it be their work on the wonderful television show The Last Man on Earth, or their terrific films 21 Jump Street or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. However, they made a film that is nothing short of a bona fide latter-day masterpiece, The LEGO Movie. What could have been nothing more than just a mediocre animated film actually turned out to be an intelligent, hilarious and meaningful film that contained a very special meaning to a lot of people. As Miller and Lord have shown throughout their career, they are adept at handling nostalgia in the right way and are capable of using the successes of yesteryear in original ways, repurposing them to be original and exciting. Their involvement behind the scenes of Solo was very exciting because perhaps we would be getting the same irreverent humor, endearing characters and enormous heart of the directors’ previous films. I always imagined a film about Han Solo and Chewbacca to be something akin to “Lethal Weapon in space”. Of course, because injustice is rife in the film industry, they were removed from the film, for reasons that are still somewhat unclear, but apparently, the comedic approach they were taking to the story were contrary to the tone intended. Personally, Star Wars has always succeeded when it balances levity and seriousness, especially when it came to Han Solo. Of course, the replacement director was Ron Howard, who is a talented director, but not someone who inspires much confidence in terms of innovative filmmaking (at least nowadays). The tense nature of this production shows in the film because the humor just doesn’t land, and considering how obvious this film’s narrative is, the big moments, such as the first sighting of Chewbacca, or the first glimpse of the Millenium Falcon, are deflated and muted. Howard is a decent director, but I just wish they had retained Lord and Miller, albeit perhaps compromising and getting their participation on the direction the film was supposed to take or find a more exciting and under-heralded director to put his or her touch on this story, which could have at least then resulted in a major hit for an up-and-coming filmmaker. Howard was the safe and predictable choice, and thus Solo is a safe and predictable film.

The most important part of Solo was not the story – I’ve mentioned it countless times, but the actual events of this film are inconsequential because Solo is a film strung around a few key and iconic moments. The factor that built this film is the cast, and I honestly cannot find too much fault in this ensemble, which is solid and reliable as one could hope. Alden Ehrenreich, who is a rising star, gets his first major role in a huge production with this film, and he is good, but not anything close to what Harrison Ford brought to this character. Understandably, it is clear that I did have high expectations, and thus I am biased and would always see Solo as being a diminished version of a story I love. However, I also desperately wanted to love this film, and I would hold onto anything redeemable. The best way to view Ehrenreich’s performance is in the same way as how many viewers perceive Heath Ledger’s performance of The Joker: just another interpretation of an iconic character, one that should not be compared to previous interactions of the character. In this instance, this is slightly more difficult, as Ehrenreich only had one forefather in Ford’s characterization, and thus there would always be a process of examining the two in close proximity to each other. Comparing them is a futile exercise because all the flaw’s in Ehrenreich’s performance become even more glaring – the cocky stride, the relentless confidence and the roguish charm that defined Han Solo before are unfortunately lost here. Ehrenreich is good in the role, and he works exhaustingly hard in playing this character. However, he cannot come anywhere close to Ford’s iconic performance, and the legendary swagger of the character that has allowed him to endure for generations is almost entirely absent in this performance. I don’t derive pleasure out of criticizing this performance, but there was very little of Ford in this performance, and considering Ford defined the character of Han Solo, Ehrenreich had an impossible task to accomplish here, which was obviously unapproachably difficult. The only way to have remedied this was to just not have made this film at all, which does seem harsh, but its also brutally honest.

The rest of the cast, however, did impress me more. Arguably, this is because they were either playing entirely new characters or minor characters that did not garner enough in the previous films to have impossibly high standards to meet. Emilia Clarke is wonderful as Solo’s girlfriend and the cunning but loyal Qi’ra, and while this performance is not necessarily difficult for her (she has made a career out of playing a fierce and willful female character in a fantasy world), she does well in imbuing this film with emotional gravitas. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is splendid as L3-37, the sarcastic and feisty robot companion to Lando Calrissian. Not much can be said about her performance, considering it is only very brief, but also entirely voice-over, but Waller-Bridge is absolutely brilliant with what she is given (and once again, I must acknowledge my own bias, because I consider Fleabag to be possibly the best television show of the current decade). Woody Harrelson is also in this film, and I have yet to find a Harrelson performance I did not adore. Arguably, he is not playing a character he normally plays, this time a stern and somewhat humorless mentor-figure (its not surprising the unquestionably serious Christian Bale was first attached to the role), but he is as great as always, and while his character of Beckett was somewhat misformed in terms of motivations, Harrelson is terrific. The real star of this film, as alluded to previously, is Donald Glover, who is having a well-deserved moment of acclaim right now, with both his television show Atlanta being an enormous critical and commercial success, but also his music (under his alter ego Childish Gambino) finally making an impact. We don’t realize it right now, but Glover is making an indelible impact on popular culture right now, and giving the best performance in Solo is only contributing to his meteoric rise to universal acclaim. Not only that, he takes a familiar character and unquestionably makes it his own – the characterization of Lando is absolutely astonishing, with it being undeniably Glover, but with clear traces of Billy Dee Williams shining through in a way that does not force the performance to be unfavorably compared to the previous incarnation, but rather allows for strong continuity. Glover is most certainly the best part of this film, and despite his slightly diminished role, he was marvelous. I do not condone any more needless standalone films, but if the same attention is paid in these films as was here, I would support a Lando film, simply because Glover is fantastic in it, and he contributes to an otherwise forgettable film.

The problem I have with Solo, above all else, is that it lacks everything I hold most dear about Star Wars. This film is entertaining, but in a way we’d expect from a well-made action film, not an entry into the legendary Star Wars franchise. It isn’t difficult to see why the Original Trilogy has legions of ardent fans – despite being dated, artificial and often unrealistically silly, they have an overabundance of soul. Star Wars is not about the visuals, it’s not about the technological innovation (these just come part and parcel of these films). It’s about the heart of the story. Solo, as well-meaning as it is, feeling empty and insincere. There is nothing particularly warm or endearing about this film, and it just attempts to rely on nostalgia and the saga’s mythology to get by. The result, as mentioned before, is a weak central storyline that is so predictable in how it will progress, every element of surprise or excitement is rendered useless. The least one could hope for was for this film to delve into the unseen mythology, contributing to the expansive Star Wars universe. However, it remains relatively intact, and there is nothing much contributed other than a few characters (most of which probably won’t extend out of this film). New worlds are not explored, new memorable characters aren’t introduced, and the film does a more notable job at needlessly stripping away elements of the saga that I think should have remained in place (such as a moment that reveals how our protagonist got his name, which was unneeded, to say the least). I’d go so far as to remark that Solo is not a Star Wars film – its a film about Star Wars, because it doesn’t really contribute anything new to the mythology, other than confirming and portraying iconic moments that could have easily thrived on in our imagination, like they have for the past four decades.

In conclusion, I am struck by something that is said a few times through this film, a piece of wisdom provided by Harrelson’s character, Beckett, who notes that “people are predictable”, and while that is certainly true, films can also be dreadfully predictable, and that is perhaps the biggest shortcoming of Solo – it isn’t that it is bad by any means, but that it is too predictable, too safe and ultimately just a bit of a bore, without anything interesting to say. I am broken by the fact that I am so ambivalent towards this film (I so desperately wanted to adore it) – but at the same time, I feel like if we live in an era where Star Wars isn’t just a beloved relic of our childhoods and a series of films we visit for the sake of nostalgia, but rather an active part of the current cinematic landscape, we can at least hope that it would be entertaining and contribute something new and exciting with each new instalment. That’s what we need, not middling storylines without an iota of originality (I am dreading the inevitable batch of standalone origin stories that we will receive, such as the already announced Boba Fett film by James Mangold, a film that precisely no one asked for). I don’t want to speak ill of Solo, because its intentions are good, and it is an entertaining experience, and perfectly adequate as a well-made science fiction film, but it falls short of living up to the impossibly-high precedent set by previous films. If Star Wars is going to become this…dull, then maybe it is time to just put it back on the shelf before it is no longer in the mint condition that it was before. I can only end this review with an earnest plea: help us, Episode IX, you’re our only hope.