If you've ever wondered what Han Solo did before the first Star Wars film, Solo: A Star Wars Story provides all the details. It seems he spent a lot of time flying spaceships and shooting at amazingly incompetent enemies with ray guns. Wow! That was a surprise.

One never expects a Star Wars movie to be dazzling in its originality, but Solo is a tradesman-like effort from Ron Howard, who was brought in to replace dumped directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Howard is merely going through the motions, and who could blame him? Although there may be hundreds of thousands of people hanging out for each new Star Wars instalment, these films are monuments to commerce and cultishness.