Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Remember when you were younger and you were playing Star Wars with your friends. Running around using water pistols or if you were lucky enough to have one, a cap gun, pretending they were laser pistols. Or using bits of wood and doing the whooshing sounds to turn them into light sabres. Then everyone fighting over who was going to be who. The tallest person was Chewie, if there was a girl there they had to be Leia (it was the mid 80's), anyone in black was always going to be Darth Vader and if you were in white, Luke. Secretly though everyone wanted to be Han. Han rocked. The bad boy smuggler. The risk taker. The guy who shot first. The one who said "I know." Everyone's favourite character throughout the trilogy. With the slew of new Star Wars films being released it was only a matter of time before Han got his own film and I'm delighted to say it's great fun. Oh that feels good to say.

Han is a thief and small time hustler on the planet of Corellia. Him and his girlfriend Qi'ra want to escape their dreary existence as fast as possible and almost succeed until Qi'ra is captured at the last minute. Han realises the only way he can get back to her is to make as much money as he can as soon as possible. Along the way he runs into a few people you might just recognise.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. One major issue aside that I'll discuss later it's easily the most fun film we've had so far in the Star Wars universe and it feels like a waft of fresh air after the darkness and grittiness of Rogue One and The Last Jedi. I feared another dark turn during the Oliver-esque opening 15 minutes but those fears were soon allayed when the film turns from a grim social study into a full on heist tale. It's a western in space and the second I realised that I was sold. It feels very much part of the Star Wars universe but it's very much it's own thing as well. Ya we get the callbacks to existing movies but thankfully they are keep to a minimum (apart from......) but one thing I really appreciated was that film's writers being smart enough to realise that they don't have to fit every second of Han's backstory in. It gives the film time to breathe and let's us find out stuff about him that we didn't already know. Let's just say he picked up a lot of life experience on the mean streets of Corellia. But all that said he's still the scruffy nerf herder we all know and love.

During production internet rumours started flying about Alden Ehrenreichs awful portrayal of Han but I'm delighted to say the part fit him like a glove. He allayed all my fears. He's the same cocky, smug, arrogant but charming chap that Harrison Ford played but delightfully he makes the role his own too. It's not a carbon(ite) copy performance thankfully. Donald Glover's portrayal of Lando Calrissian is the same. He makes Lando his own and while not getting as much screen time as you'd expect still gets far more to do than Billy Dee Williams ever did. Chewbecca makes the most of his extended screentime too. Always a fan favourite but rarely got to do much more than howl and fly, here we see what a Wookiie is really capable of, including a moment people have been waiting to see for over 40 years. I love Chewie. Emilia Clarke is good as Qi'ra too and turns out to be far more than the love interest that trailers hinted at. 

I mentioned it was fun right? It's also really funny. Proper belly laugh funny in parts. I never thought I'd hear the word arse in space but I was proved wrong. We get intergalactic blogging, inventive ways that aliens can cheat at card games, the growing bond between Han and Chewie, Paul Bettany as a vicious murdering prick of a villain who can turn on the sympathy in a hilariously condescending manner and Woody Harrelson as a grumpy old pro who has a great way with words. New Droid L3-37 is a scream too and will put unwanted thoughts of man-robot love in your head. The humour, apart from one early scene that will make you groan and roll your eyes has a lovely unforced feeling too. I don't think I've laughed more at a Star Wars film.

But.....but. There's always a but. Like with the other spin off movie Rogue One there's no real tension here. It's a huge downside of a prequel. We know certain characters aren't going to die and we lose a lot of drama and suspense because of that. It tempers the big action packed shoot outs when you aren't worried about the leads. It's the nature of the prequel beast though. My only other issues were the aforementioned sluggish and grim opening scenes and while it was great to see Thandi Newton turn up in this, sadly she's just not in it for long enough. 

Everyone knows the story about original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller getting replaced with Ron Howard during production and people wouldn't be blamed for expecting a disjointed mess but amazingly it all comes together. The ending is a lot more low key than you'd expect in a Star Wars film and may have been a result of disruption but for me it worked. We've had more than enough massive space battles and exploding enemy bases and it's nice to see things happening among humans at ground level instead. People may piss and moan but I love seeing films in this series do new things.

Some issues aside this is a very entertaining new entry in the Star Wars saga. It's great fun and might just win back some of the people alienated by The Last Jedi. Oh, btw, it's definitely getting a sequel. I'd bet my back teeth on it.