Solo: A Star Wars Story - why we have a bad feeling about this.
Does the trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story do enough to settle our nerves or should we not get cocky about this Solo spinoff?
After a long time waiting for far far too long finally the Solo: A Star Wars Story teaser was released during the Super Bowl, and like waiting for a Rebel freight: another then comes along in quick succession. But should we still have the same concerns that we did when hearing about the productions problems? Or like Han would say, are we “all fine, all fine here now, thank you. How are you?”
Aesthetically the latest addition to the Star Wars franchise borrows a lot from Rogue One. There’s certainly much more of a darker tone created, and The Empire feature heavily throughout both trailers. Neither trailer shows any indication of who the main villain will be within the movie though. We can assume that it’s not Darth Vader, and we can wish for Boba Fett all we want but if that was the case he’d probably have appeared in the trailer. Hopefully there is a great antagonist in this movie as every great hero needs a great villain too.
It’s not yet clear just how Solo: A Star Wars Story links into the franchise’s timeline. Obviously it’s before A New Hope and after Revenge of the Sith, but could there be tie ins to Rebels? Perhaps the main villain could be someone from the Black Sun? Or maybe we’ll find out more about how Han managed to get so in debt to Jabba the Hutt? Han really needs a great villain to bounce off.
Solo is arguably the most loved of all Star Wars characters, with Harrison Ford being hugely celebrated for his role. Let’s be honest, even at the best of times Star Wars’ dialogue is shaky, but Ford always managed to portray the magic behind Solo. Sadly Alden Ehrenreich is not Harrison Ford. The delivery of some of Solo’s lines seem very forced and just lack the charisma we’ve come to expect from the galaxy’s favourite scoundrel. Han proudly boasts that “I’ve been running scams on the street since I was 10”, but it’s not in a loveable cocky way, it feels too cold from him. He also seems very eager to show off just how rebellious he is: “I was kicked out of flight academy for having a mind of my own.” So cool.
These painfully forced lines are mixed with very Last Jedi-like comedy. Han interpreting Chewbacca’s response by saying “that’s yes” is probably meant to be funny, but it really misses the mark - especially in the darker and moodier setting. And the almost slapstick “I thought we were in trouble then for a second. But it’s fine, we’re fine.” just before they’re almost eaten? It feels cheap and tacky. Han isn’t meant to be any of this: he’s cocky yes, but in a loveable way. It’s a tough role to play, but shoddy scripting sure doesn’t help Ehrenreich at all.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the trailer could be the role of Kira, played by Emilia Clark (interesting fact - in The Force Awakens’ development stage Rey was actually called Kira). Little is known about who Kira is, but we can already assume she will be a love interest for Solo. Obviously we know that this won’t work out for Han, so there should be some added depth to the story and character of Solo seeing as we’ll be able to see behind Solo’s cocky facade to see his raw emotions. “I might be the only person who knows what you really are” indicates that this will be a close relationship too, perhaps even dating back to Han’s days where he was scamming. That type of long-lasting relationship mixed with difficult trials feels a lot like Lost Stars, the fantastic Claudia Gray novel. Hopefully the writing for this relationship will be better than the writing for Solo’s ‘funny lines’ and add some much needed flair to Ehrenreich’s version of Han Solo.
Overall, there’s a lot to be concerned about. The dialogue is pretty weak and Ehrenreich seems to be struggling to capture the presence that Harrison Ford gave to the character. But a compelling villain could add a lot to his character, and hopefully the potential love interest, Kira, could help show the depth of the most loved smuggler of them all.