Solo: A Star Wars Story

Everybody’s fusses about how this isn’t what the old Star Wars used to be, but actually it’s good. Only Abrams could afford to copy the original and to do this only once. But this entertaining and light-weight adventure makes use of a gap between the first and second trilogy in different way. Solo’s solo reminds of Firefly, but with a huge special effects budget. The cast is good and of course if they had given us a young Ford, it would be a lever higher, but you get used to it. A lot of great lines and even though the narration sometimes flounders (some strange twists due to reshoots), it still plays beautifully. And John Powell’s music is just the best! With Williams’ new theme for Han, he presents ferocious style which is just right for the series. (06/01/2018)

For someone who doesn’t like any of the episodes of Star Wars, I give this one a thumbs up. A surprisingly solid and brisk heist space flick, with Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, and an unknown Solo lookalike pulling it off. It's nicely entertaining, decently filmed, sufficiently suspenseful and action-packed, and the weird creatures are kept to a minimum compared to Star Wars, which just suits me. A nice surprise and finally can I say the best Star Wars movie?? ! 80% (09/15/2018)

The name of the movie should have been Holo. A Generic Space Story. In that case, the film could have avoided showing tiring and dull facts that no one really wants to know but that are on a to-do-list of the film makers, like how Han came to this and that and how he got to know him or her. The story that the third movie of Indy managed to tell in 14-minute prologue with grace and at a frantic pace here takes two and a quarter hours. At the same time, it will not enrich the iconic character of Sol in any way. What is even more unfortunate is that when the film makers don´t want to please the fans or don´t try to create a fantastic show spectacle (a horrible sequence with a space monster or an uprising in the mine working), then there are many wonderful things (introduction, Madmax-style train attack, “spaghetti" westerns tricky ending), where it´s unique thanks to a refreshing sympathetically earthbound and dirty view of the Star Wars universe, that is free from all the padding of "we are one family, we save galaxies", it has obviously a lot to offer. And maybe the filmmakers will realize that as soon as we find out after seeing 20 sequels who Jabby's first lover was, why Boba Fett has shabby armor, why the second musician from the left in canteen from the original film plays the clarinet and not the saxophone etc. (05/28/2018)

Disney is squeezing the last bits of juice from the Star Wars universe. In this movie, the action starts before we even know it. The actors are alright, and the visual effects are flawless… what is it that I want to complain about, then? Well, maybe that the movie is a bit lifeless. In terms of the story, I don’t care at all in which direction it will unfold because I know what will happen to Han Solo anyway. If it weren’t for the casting, which as always saved Disney from a fuck-up, I wouldn’t even have watched the movie to the end. (03/06/2019)

Han Solo wants money, a ship, freedom and to save his girl. So he decides to take part in a heist that even the galaxy's greatest madmen wouldn't dare. Solo: A Star Wars Story is a brisk, entertaining, old-school adventure flick that is fun to watch, has likeable characters and good actors, and tries to show the world of Star Wars from the bottom up, from a place where there are no Jedi, Force or ambition to rule the universe, just a desire to make big bucks and have a good time. And it's a lot more fun than we'd expect after the creative problems. (07/26/2018)