Solo: A Star Wars Story

I went to see the new Star Wars movie on Thursday night, Solo, and I have to say, it was pretty damn good!

There will be extensive spoilers throughout this post, so don’t say I didn’t warn you!!

The film follows Han during his early years prior to the events of A New Hope, and I was actually surprised by how much of the existing back story for him has been kept. He starts out as a street kid on Corellia, mixed up with the crime lords there, and attempts to flee for a better life with his girlfriend, Qi’ra, but the two are separated while escaping. Han joins the Imperial Academy in an effort to gain the money to come back and rescue her, but three years later, he has washed out of the Navy and is part of the Infantry on a hellish action on Mimban. There, he comes across the smuggler Tobias Beckett and his gang, posing as Imperial soldiers. For insubordination, Han is thrown into a cell with “the beast”, a Wookiee named Chewbacca and, due to his ability to speak Shyriiwook, Han manages to break out, and they both escape to join Beckett.

Beckett’s gang is on a heist to steal the hyperfuel coaxium on the planet Vandor, a job that goes sour when the Cloud Riders pirate gang then try to steal the shipment. Beckett and the others get away, but the job was taken on for Dryden Vos, head of the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate. Vos is not happy, but Han and Chewie go along with him to try to retain favour and offer to steal another shipment that will replace the refined fuel from Vandor. Han explains there is some unrefined fuel held in a vault under the spice mines on Kessel, so the gang head off to steal it. Han also discovers that Qi’ra is now working for Vos, and she is sent to keep an eye on them during the job.

In order to get a ship fast enough that will get the coaxium to a refinery before it degrades, Qi’ra introduces the gang to Lando Calrissian, a retired smuggler who owns the Millennium Falcon, said to be the fastest ship in the business. Han attempts to win the ship in a game of sabacc, but he loses – however, for a cut of the profits, Beckett persuades Lando to join the crew. The gang then heads off to Kessel and stages a prison break out to cover the theft of the coaxium, however an Imperial patrol shows up as the smugglers are about to make it out. Han manages to out-fly the Imperials, and the group makes it to an old refinery on the planet Savareen.

There, the Cloud Riders show up to steal the fuel just as Dryden Vos appears to collect it. They learn that the Cloud Riders are a nomad group attempting to rebel against the tyranny of the Empire, and need the fuel to continue their raids. Han comes up with a plan whereby they can help the Riders, but Beckett doesn’t want to fall foul of Dryden again and walks away, saying he has heard of a gangster on Tatooine and offers Han the chance to join him if he makes it out alive. Han then gives Dryden the coaxium, but Dryden has been told of Han’s double cross by his inside man, who is revealed to be none other than Beckett. Dryden’s men are sent to collect the real coaxium from the Cloud Riders, however, Han has triple-crossed everyone by presenting the real coaxium to Dryden, and giving the Riders nothing. The plan works to lure out all of Dryden’s men, however, and Beckett attempts to steal the fuel, leaving Han and Qi’ra alone with Dryden.

Qi’ra, who has been taught Teräs Käsi, manages to kill Dryden, and tells Han to go collect the fuel from Beckett, whereupon she’ll join him. However, Qi’ra sends a message to Dryden’s boss – none other than Darth Maul! – telling him that Dryden is dead and she has now assumed command of the Crimson Dawn. Han recovers the coaxium with Chewie, killing his mentor Beckett in the process, but is dismayed to see Qi’ra leave in Dryden’s ship.

The movie ends with Han playing sabacc once again with Lando, but this time, Han manages to win the Falcon, and he and Chewie head off to Tatooine to look up the gangster Beckett had mentioned…

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This was a really good movie! It follows a lot of the established storyline we’ve come to know about Han from the expanded universe, which I thought an interesting choice, but at the same time it’s nice to see how much of that has been retained. Some random thoughts:

It was really nice to see Kessel in the film, and interesting how much of that lore has been retained in so far as the deadly approach and the Maw are still a thing.

Alden Ehrenreich is signed up for two more films, which makes a lot of sense as, while the film was really good, I thought it definitely set up at least another story, but if the quality can be maintained, then a Solo trilogy could be a wonderful thing. Much more than Luke or Leia, Han Solo at this point in the timeline can be such a vehicle for seeing the wider galaxy, but the seedier side of it as well. We could get to visit the Corporate Sector, which we know to be a thing in the new canon thanks to Catalyst, among others. But I think we need to see how Han came to be under the thumb of Jabba the Hutt, and we need to see more of Han and Lando beyond this one adventure. Lando is the guy Han turns to when he’s in a jam, but I didn’t get that from their relationship here.

While Rogue One was fine on its own, I think a Solo sequel would be great.

The references to the wider expanded universe were off the charts with this one, and I absolutely loved it! Lando makes at least two references to the godawful L Neil Smith trilogy from the early 80s, which was actually really fun; however, for the main part we get a lot of really nice throw-away lines that help to really fix the place of this film in the wider Star Wars lore. While you could argue against calling on the same small pool of names when you’re dealing with a galactic wide cast, mentioning Bossk as a potential hire for Beckett’s gang was a cool touch. We also learn that Beckett killed Aurra Sing, at which point I had a huge grin on my face!

I really want to know why Maul is now head of the Crimson Dawn. I should probably catch up with the Clone Wars cartoon series, not to mention Rebels, in case we can learn anything there! It was good to know that he was played by Ray Park once again, and while Peter Serafinowicz doesn’t return this time, we do get Sam Witwer, who played Vader’s Secret Apprentice for The Force Unleashed back in the day.

Hopefully we’ll find out more in the Solo sequels…

The Cloud Riders are an interesting bunch, and I think I’d like to see more of those guys – while it’s always a bit worrying seeing the amount of pre-Alliance rebel groups hanging about in the galaxy, the fact that Benthic from Saw Gerrera’s Partisans is a part of the group was a nice touch, and serves to help pull these people together I think.

I think it’s an interesting point here that both of the stand-alone movies released by Disney so far have been instant hits for me, while the episode movies are a lot slower to burn. I’m still a little undecided about The Last Jedi, while I didn’t even need to wait until the credits to know that I liked Solo a whole lot more! I suppose it has something to do with Disney tapping into the original trilogy era, and the sense of nostalgia we all have for those movies, by creating a universe that draws on that same style. It’s a lot more difficult, I suppose, when you’ve got the task of creating something that must move away from that look by definition of the fact it takes place decades later. There’s probably more to be said on that topic, but this blog is already running quite long already, so I think it’s time to stop for now.

If you haven’t booked your tickets already, definitely go check this movie out! If you’ve read through this entire post to get here, you probably don’t need to go see it for yourself of course, but it’s definitely an enjoyable movie!