You a Star Wars fan?  Considering going to see Solo?  My dear friend got me a ride to the theater yesterday, so here’s my thoughts:

We had high expectations for this movie, before anyone knew anything about it.  Meddling with a character like Han Solo was incredibly dangerous.  Did they pull it off?  I’m not so sure.

I walked into the theater, hoping they just wouldn’t do this one thing.  And less than five minutes into the two-hour movie, they did it.  I was still willing to give it a shot, but I don’t think they redeemed themselves.

Considering they were replacing Harrison Ford, they picked a great actor.  Alden Ehrenreich is good at what he does, and I think he did a phenomenal job with what he was given.  The acting was not at all a deal-breaker for me; my complaints are with the writing.  The characters all felt shallow, most of them felt completely unnecessary, the story-line felt rushed, and the ending dissolved into a messy web of unexplained plot-twists; not to mention, it did not mesh well with the already-existing Star Wars galaxy.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t regret buying that ticket!  It was entertaining and funny; as a stand-alone action movie, it was pretty well done.  The fight scenes were cool–twirling fantasy weapons and throwing them at each other–and I enjoyed all the flying.  I also approve of a certain, large “living thing” that they bump into (almost literally) while they’re making the you-know-what.  I love that kind of thing in Star Wars–things with lots of eyes, and tentacles, and an insatiable appetite.  That’s what we watch sci-fi for!  Sadly, I found most of that sequence confusing and anticlimactic.

It just did not say Star Wars to me.  If you are going to mess with something that classic and well-loved, at least respect the characters involved!  I actually came home and asked my parents if George Lucas was dead–because why would any living storyteller let people botch their characters like this?

My big complaint?  Han Solo was too heroic.  Look at how he behaves at the beginning of A New Hope.  (Han shot first–am I right??)  In his backstory, Han Solo should be a lying, thieving, mercenary scoundrel, right?  But in Solo, Han was this sincere, super conscientious, overly naive young man, that switched into “smug Han Solo” mode every time there was a snarky line.  It was almost unbearable.

Chewbacca delivered pretty well, but he certainly didn’t get the interesting backstory we all wanted–we still know nothing about him!  I can only think of one added character I really liked.  The antagonist was the lamest attempt at an SW villain to ever fall short of Darth Vader.  Lando Calrissian is the only character I’m almost perfectly happy with (and even he had some cringe-worthy moments).

So my bottom line is this:

If you have two and half spare hours, $5 burning a hole in your pocket, and a hankering for an action movie (explosions, sarcasm, sci-fi beasts, some good blaster-action), there’s no better way to spend your afternoon.

But if you’re a fan of the original trilogy, and you’re looking for a nostalgic ride and a more complete understanding of your old friends, I think you’ll be disappointed.