NOTE: Spoilers Ahead
I’m a fan of all kinds of science fiction and as such I tend to be a little more forgiving when franchises like Star Trek or Star Wars put out new material. I don’t generally pick it apart and compare it to the glory days of yore. Yet after seeing the latest iteration in the Star Wars saga, I felt the need to blog about my thoughts on the film.
I’ll start by saying that generally I liked the movie. I felt the story was cohesive with a good beginning, middle, and end. They left a few questions unanswered thus leaving the door open for more storytelling in the future. The soundtrack was amazing and the acting was top notch.
The film shows us how Han and Chewbacca met and became family. It was great to see this relationship in its infancy. The film also shows us how Han met Lando and eventually won the Millennium Falcon in a card game. These two elements are crucial to the future story and I thought the writers did a fantastic job with them.
If I’m going to be honest, I was just a bit disappointed at how Han was written. When we first see Han in “A New Hope”, he’s every bit the scoundrel Leia says he is. He “shot” first after all. He’s a guy who looks after himself above all else. To survive as a smuggler in desperate times this character trait makes every bit of sense. Through the original movie series, we see his character undergo change as he falls in love with Leia and works with the rebellion. He becomes a hero who puts others before himself. This character transformation is critical to Han’s story arc over the course of the original three films.
The latest movie starts out strong with Han ripping someone off with plans to get off Corellia, the terrible world he’s grown up on. Then comes “the girl”, I swear I did a mental face palm. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Emilia Clarke as an actress and the character of Qi’ra was very well written. I just wholly expected Han to be a sleaze at this point in his life. It makes sense that a young man desperate to get away from a life of destitution wouldn’t make deep connections with anyone purely as a survival tactic, yet we start the film with Han in love!
Han makes it off the planet but she doesn’t and he spends the next three years of his life trying to get back and rescue her. He meets a ruthless band of thieves and signs on to help them with their latest scheme hoping it will bring him closer to saving Qi’ra. He gets a kind of mentor with Tobias Beckett, the leader. Beckett is every bit the cold hearted selfish scoundrel Han should be. Becket imparts his scoundrel wisdom to Han but Han doesn’t appear to buy into Beckett’s philosophy. Beckett and Han fail to complete the job they were hired to do and must face the music. The two men meet up with the crime syndicate they’re freelancing for and Han discovers Qi’ra made it off Corellia and now works for the crime syndicate he’s in trouble with.
To set things right, Han and Beckett along with Qi’ra must pull off another heist. Long story short, they’re successful and make it to the rendezvous with the required material. Before they can make the hand-off, in comes a paradigm shift when a group of rebels attempt to intercept the stolen goods. The rebels are desperate to take down the various crime lords who oppress the people which reminds Han of his life growing up on Corellia. Should Han work with the rebels and turn over the material thus making an enemy of the crime syndicate? Should he give the material to the crime syndicate and attempt to free his lover from her obligations to them?
At the climax of the film, Han does the right, he plays the role of a hero. Han betrays Beckett because Beckett would have killed him otherwise thus he learned at least a few of Beckett’s lessons. He gives the goods to the rebels and the man holding power over Qi’ra meets a deadly end. Qi’ra has plans of her own leaving Han and Chewbacca to fend for themselves. As a standalone story this ending would normally be just fine but this is a backstory film. By making him a good guy and a man devoted to a woman he loves, it completely upsets the character transformation he undergoes in Episodes 4, 5, and 6! He ends the film a good guy so when does he become the selfish smuggler we see in “A New Hope”? Another backstory film perhaps?
Aside from Han’s character arc, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a pretty good film worth seeing for those who aren’t too particular when it comes to the Star Wars franchise.
End Transmission