Young Han Solo finds adventure when he joins a gang of galactic smugglers, including a 196-year-old Wookie named Chewbacca. Indebted to the gangster Dryden Vos, the crew devises a daring plan to travel to the mining planet Kessel to steal a batch of valuable coaxium. In need of a fast ship, Solo meets Lando Calrissian, the suave owner of the perfect vessel for the dangerous mission
Star Wars is one of the largest film and comic franchises in the world, and probably in history. And if I’m honest there’s a great reason that keeps fans coming back, dressed up as characters... because Star Wars is always full of surprises, action, laughs and always entertainment. This film follows that trend perfectly! The newest film into the large collection is 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' which is basically a smaller side story regarding one of the films biggest characters, Han Solo. And the film portrays his youth life. This side story is a relatively new style for the franchise, but is it a masterpiece or a miserable failure in an attempt to add to the series? Well this is what you're here to find out so let's go!
In short I loved this film. For many reasons of course, with an all new cast which has mixed reviews; I feel this adds plenty to the franchise by adding in a series of side stories. Which for non mad fans of the series like myself, provides an open and fresh approach which left me saying “ohhh so that’s why his name is Han Solo” or “that’s where Chewbacca is from? Awesome” and that’s why I enjoyed this film so much!
I feel that even though the audio is typical for the genre and the series, it really hits home perfectly here. The variety of both non-diegetic as well as diegetic audio was great, from loud 'whooshes' to more quick paced music to build tension, the audio for this film was great and really helped out well with setting the scene and the overall effect of the film! It really did work well at causing tension and reflecting the scene, as well as the characters opinions and feelings to the audience, another reason as to why the franchise is so popular and well received by fans. I also thoroughly enjoyed the inclusion of new and a different set of actors too, wide ends of the spectrum from the widely know Childish Gambino aka. Donald Glover 😉 to the graceful Emilia Clarke whom is most famously known as the queen of *game of thrones world name here*. I think it's pretty obvious I haven't seen game of thrones... But anyway I feel that the actors that were chosen for this film were perfect, as they really represented the characters well and that reflected to the audience. I was also very impressed with the plot and the overall transitions of the film too, there was a very clear and easily understandable plot which didn't cause any confusions or problems during the film, perfect! I also like how despite the characters moving quickly between time frames and locations that it still all made sense, I said during Infinity War it got a little confusing with all the locations they visited, but here it just seemed to make sense and wasn't confusing for me at all really. It gave a good impression of what was going on and allowed the audience to see what was happening around the Star Wars galaxy in bite sized chunks.
And may I add in that all of the settings and locations looked absolutely great, I really was impressed with the cinematography and camera angles within the film too. There was a good variety of establishing shots to set the scene for the audience, as well as close up and medium long shots to show all of the characters within the room to really help immerse the audience into the film. Very well executed! And like I've said I may not be the biggest Star Wars fan but this film really left me wanting more and really excited about the series and the other smaller side stories within the franchise too, something that only the best films tend to have the effect of. One of the best parts of the film though for me, was watching Han and Chewie's relationship develop though. From Han nearly being used as bait, to them being an awesome team! This then flipped the storyline completely when Qi'Ra and Han don't seem to have the happy ending that we were expecting, even though there was a great establishing set of scenes at the beginning to help ease the audience into the plot to give the impression of young love. This unhappy ending seems to continue even more so when the menacing Darth Maul came onto the screen which definitely gave the audience chills!
I was very happy with the acting in the film too, like I've previously stated, I feel the actors were perfect for the roles in which they played and they really helped to give the characters well, some character!! I thoroughly enjoyed the film and I can't wait for the next in the series or what's next from the makers!
Unfortunately, and even though they were small and far in between there were some issues with the film. I was slightly confused as to how Chewie suddenly understood English and what Han was saying after only a few lines of dialect between the two characters. I also feel that another intense battle scene similar to the scene towards the end of the film would've been sufficient as well. Although the scene where we thought the millennium falcon would get sucked into a fiery black hole, only to be blasted away was very intense and was a real 'heart in your mouth' kind of moment for me and the audience. Many people argue that the film isn't actually relevant and required but personally I feel it added a really nice touch to the franchise and allowed fans such as myself to gain an important understanding of the franchise and storyline whilst keeping new and updated actors to entertain many audiences!
Overall I would give this film an 8.5, I really think it's a great film and if you aren't sure then you should definitely go watch it, a really great experience for 'dress up Star Wars geeks' to the casual film fan who goes once a year.
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it and watching the film. :)
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