Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story
September 25, 2018
Solo: A Star Wars Story - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, or 4K Combo Pack
Solo was the third Star Wars film to come out in approximately 18 months. It also had serious behind-the-scenes issues that resulted in $100 millions worth of reshoots, according to some reports. It missed expectations, both at the box office and with critics. Is it the weakest installment in the Disney era? If so, is it still worth checking out?
The movie doesn’t start with with a text crawl like most other Star Wars films do. Instead, there’s intertitles telling us about the state of the galaxy. Most importantly for this movie, we learn about Lady Proxima, the crime boss Han works for. When we first meet him, he’s running away from a deal gone bad. The gang he was trying to deal with take the money and goods, but he was able to pocket a vial of refined coaxium, a.k.a. hyperfuel, which should be worth enough to get him and Qi'ra off the planet, but they will have to try and make their escape while Lady Proxima’s goons are after them. Han gets away, by volunteering for the Imperial Navy, but Qi'ra gets caught. He promises to come back for her.
Flash forward a few years later and Han is just an infantryman after being kicked out of the academy. The battle he’s involved in is a mess and the major is killed, so he turns to the ranking officer in the area, Captain Beckett. It isn’t long before he figures out that Captain Beckett isn’t a member of the Imperial Army, but is the leader of a gang with Val and Rio. The trio are planning a heist and Han wants in. His first try to join involves blackmail, but Beckett instead turns Han in for being a deserter and Han is thrown in with the man-eating beast, who turns out to be Chewie. Fortunately, Han can speak Wookie and works out an escape plan and the pair get to Beckett’s gang. Rio suggests they allow them to stay, because Wookies are useful on a heist, and other times.
The plan is to steal a vial of hyperfuel, while it is being transported by a train, but this plan goes sideways when another gang leader, Enfys Nest, shows up to try and steal the refined coaxium they are stealing. Neither of them get the goods, as it explodes in the fight. Beckett and the rest have to go to his boss, Dryden Vos. Dryden Vos in turn tells them that his boss is going to want consequences for this failure, meaning someone’s going to die. In a bit of luck, Dryden’s lieutenant is none other than Qi'ra and she’s able to smooth things long enough that Han can suggest making it up to Dryden by stealing something just as valuable as refined coaxium, unrefined coaxium. The problem is, no one steals unrefined coaxium, because it is extremely unstable. The group does come up with a plan. They will steal it from the mines on Kessel and take it to Savareen to be refined, which is where Dryden will come to collect it. There’s only one problem. It takes too long to get from Kessel to Savareen, so they will need someone with a really fast ship.
Qi'ra know just the person and just the ship: Lando Calrissian and the Millennium Falcon.
When Solo: A Star Wars Story was first announced and it was revealed that the film would explore what the Kessel Run actually was, a lot of people reacted with, “Do we really need to know that?” My response was, “YES! A heist movie in the Star Wars universe! I’ve been waiting for this film for decades.” Sadly, the film didn’t live up to my expectations. Heist films are like romantic comedies. There are certain elements of each genre that are cliché at this point, but still expected. If there isn’t a meet cute in a rom com, it just doesn’t feel right. Likewise, there’s no planning montage in this heist movie. The more blunt force approach isn’t as satisfying.
There are plenty of action scenes in the movie and many of these are quite thrilling. The train heist, while lacking in the traditional planning montage, it still exciting to watch, for the most part. It was hard to get too invested, because we knew that Han and Chewie were going to live and that all of the newly introduced characters were expendable. I’m not going to spoil who died, but after Rogue One, I don’t think anyone will be surprised that people die. Speaking of surprises, Enfys Nest... Were we supposed to be surprised at her reveal?
I did like most of the cast and I enjoyed watching the movie, but it didn’t live up to my expectations and I would rank it as the second weakest installment franchise, only topping The Phantom Menace.
There are no extras on the first disc of the Blu-ray, not even an audio commentary track. However, there is a bonus disc. Extras begin with a 22-minute long round-table discussion with the main cast moderated by Ron Howard, the director. Kasdan on Kasdan is an eight-minute featurette on Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote not only Solo, but also many other installments in the Star Wars franchise. Remaking the Millennium Falcon is a six-minute look at the iconic ship and how it differs from the earlier movies. Escape from Corellia is a ten-minute look at the first big action scene in the movie. The Train Heist is 14-minute look at the second big action scene in the movie. Team Chewie is seven minutes about Chewie and how the character is introduced and fully realized in the movie and the number of people, as well as a handful of animals, who helped bring the character to life. Becoming Droid L3-37 is a five-minute look at L3-37. Welcome to Fort Ypso is an eight-minute look at the location where they meet Lando Calrissian. Up next is Into the Maelstrom: The Kessel Run, an eight-minute look at the famous Solo exploit mentioned in A New Hope. Finally, there are 15 minutes of deleted scenes.
Overall, there are more than 90 minutes of extras on the second disc.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is the second weakest installment in the Star Wars franchise. However, it is still an entertaining action film that is better than a lot of big budget blockbusters released during the average summer. The Blu-ray / 4K Combo Packs have more than enough extras to be worth picking up.
Video on Demand (Movie Only) or Video on Demand (With Bonus Features)
The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau, Woody Harrelson, Ron Howard, Linda Hunt, Lawrence Kasdan, Thandiwe Newton, Donald Glover, Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Joonas Suotamo, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Erin Kellyman