In the original Star Wars, the spaceships zipped along but seemed locked into
It might seem unfair to compare Ron Howard’s prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story to Empire’s asteroid set piece, a sequence that balances — through its shrewd scripting, sharp editing, urgent pulp acting and still-dazzling effects work — all the tension, humor
In Solo, on the other hand, the cockpit shots and the effects shots seem only vaguely related to each other. What exactly the Falcon is flying into — space gasses and shards of
As for the rest of the movie? Let’s start here: In the first season of
Like Rogue One, the other standalone Disney Star Wars film that suffered a famously troubled production, Solo has a just-finish-the-movie quality to it, an uncertainty about the pacing and seriousness of developments in its own story. An early, exhausting heist sequence includes moments of tragedy that get followed too soon by more high adventure and never seem to weigh on the other characters. The look is murky, its compositions undistinguished, especially in comparison to the ravishments of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi. Early scenes set in the factory hellscape of the planet Corellia get swathed in a heavy blue tint that obscures the characters as much as a blanket might have. Why commit to creating elaborate monster puppets if we can’t even see them? And the scenes of action, for the most part, play something like they did in Howard’s 2013 Formula One movie Rush, where a yapping British sports announcer — shades of C-3PO! – had to explain to us every turn of the races.
Howard joined the production late, so, this isn’t just a Ron Howard Star Wars. It’s a rushed Ron Howard Star Wars. (I imagine him shouting “Never tell me the odds!” as he vaulted into his director’s chair.) Still, Howard stamps the material in some welcome ways: The scruffy breeziness of his early comedies (Night Shift, Splash, Gung Ho) suits the hit-and-miss script, by Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan. Here’s a Star Wars that’s more appealing when its characters are chatting than when they’re pew-pewing. Howard, of course, acted in George Lucas’ American Graffiti and directed his own ’70s car-chase feature, 1977’s Grand Theft Auto. His intimate connection to the gearhead Modesto car culture that inspired Lucas to create Han Solo in the first place is apparent in the film’s simplest, most satisfying stretch of action, an early chase on clunky
This is the fourth Disney Star Wars feature, but only the second not to climax with an assault on or by a Death Star or its stand-in. The Kasdans, like Howard, instead
Solo: A Star Wars Story. Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Emilia Clarke, and Woody Harrelson. Directed by Ron Howard. Written by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan. 135 minutes. Rated PG-13. Opens Friday, May 25.