Solo: A Star Wars Story tells a lively origin tale of Han’s early days

AS it opens this week in Australia this is all you need to know about Solo: A Star Wars Story. This is not a big-time Star Wars movie. It is a goodtime Star Wars movie.

HERE is all you need to know going in to Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Solo is not a big-time Star Wars movie. It is a goodtime Star Wars movie.

If you want this origin tale of how Han Solo got his start in the wisecracking fly-boy business to be packed with deep and meaningful mentions of the Force, or fresh canon fodder about the Jedi way, you’ve come to the wrong place.

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However, if you want the upbeat lowdown on when Han first met Chewbacca, got the keys to the Millennium Falcon, or acquired his legendary skills as a maverick pilot — making friends, enemies and mischief along the way — then you are definitely in the right place.

Alden Ehrenreich and Joonas Suotamo in a scene from Solo: A Star Wars Story. (Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm via AP)

The big asterisk most Star Wars lifers will have on Solo is how convincingly relative unknown Alden Ehrenreich will step into the shoes of Harrison Ford as a younger, greener Han.

There is no real need to worry here. While the fresh-faced (and noticeably smaller) Ehrenreich doesn’t exude any of Ford’s grouchy, yet good-natured gravitas, he does get the up-for-anything attitude of Han Solo just right.

The space-cowboy swagger of Han is foreshadowed in a learning-on-the-job kind of way, and wisely so. Any sort of impersonation of Ford would have killed the playful vibe here in seconds flat.

The Solo storyline tracks to about a decade before the events of where Star Wars began for everyone (Episode IV — A New Hope), which places Han’s age roughly in his early twenties.

Han starts out as a small-time grafter, trying to get the money together to buy his own space ride so he can get back to his home planet of Corellia and rescue his girlfriend Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones).

This image released by Lucasfilm shows Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo in a scene from "Solo: A Star Wars Story." (Lucasfilm via AP)

After a tumultuous first encounter with Chewie almost results in bloodshed (it takes a little while for the great Wookiee to warm to his future best bud), Han falls in with a bunch of rogues (led by Woody Harrelson as cunning crook Tobias Beckett) that will teach him all about talking, blasting or flying his way out of any situation.

For a Star Wars movie, Solo is particularly light on for treacherous villains (or at lease those prepared to conduct their villainy out in the open). The only bad dude worth paying any attention to is a nefarious playboy gangster named Dreyden Vos (Paul Bettany), and he only gets two scenes to strut his sinister stuff.

As for plotting wildcards, most of those are held by the charismatic intergalactic gambler, debonair dresser and one-time legendary pilot, Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover of TV’s Atlanta).

Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. (Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm via AP)

Star Wars fans who remember the older Lando from the foundation trilogy of movies will find themselves digging his background story just as much as that of Han.

Particularly when it comes to Lando’s unlikely friendship with what turns out to be another standout character in the movie, a droll and whip-smart droid name L3-37 (voiced by British comedian Phoebe Waller-Bridge).

While the plotting of Solo: A Star Wars Story is fast-paced and fun when purely character-based, the many massive action sequences do get a bit samey after a while (and are the reason why the running time goes well past the two-hour mark).

Those viewers who do not carry the Star Wars gene will find these regular breaks for exchanges of fists, weapons and urgently shouted plot exposition to be a little too ‘scheduled’ for their own good.

Alden Ehrenreich, right, and Joonas Suotamo as Chewie. (Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm via AP)

Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra. (Lucasfilm via AP)

Then again, spontaneity has never been a word associated with veteran director Ron Howard, who took over this blockbuster project after shooting had already began (controversially replacing original filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller).

While Howard does a serviceable, if not spectacular job behind the camera, he does nail one aspect of the production that will please hard line and nostalgic Star Wars fans alike.

On Howard’s watch, Solo: A Star Wars Story marks more of a return to A New Hop e’s rollicking, Saturday adventure matinee roots than any other of the ‘modern’ Star Wars movies to date.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (M)

Rating : ***1/2

Director: Ron Howard (Cinderella Man)

Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Joonas Suotamo, Thandie Newton, Paul Bettany, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jon Favreau, Linda Hunt.

Going Solo is a fun group effort

Solo: A Star Wars Story opens Thursday May 24th in cinemas around Australia

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