A scoundrel story

After a tumultuous production, Solo: A Star Wars Story makes it to screens, completed by a different director than the ones who started the gig.

About a year ago, director Ron Howard took over for Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street) after executive producer Kathleen Kennedy showed them the door. Howard came on when principal photography was near completion, but wound up reshooting 70 percent of the movie.

The finished film definitely feels like more than one director had his hands in the pot. It’s sloppy, tonally challenged, and scenes crash into each other at times, as if moments were shoehorned into the plot to fix a story problem, killing an otherwise brisk and fun pace.

So, there are some definite negatives at play here, but there are also plenty of positives, though not enough to keep Solo from being one of the weaker Star Wars films. In the end, Solo will probably fall in the middle of the favorite Star Wars film scale—with the Star Wars Holiday Special on one end and Revenge of the Sith on the other.

Stepping into the iconic role of Han Solo is Alden Ehrenreich (hilarious in the Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar!), a guy who has very little in common with Harrison Ford. He doesn’t look like him, he doesn’t sound like him, and he lacks that bemused Ford swagger. He does have his own charms, however, and is a likeable actor, and he puts his own spin on the character. While he didn’t feel like the Han Solo to me, he gets by as an enjoyable variation. (Hey, not all of the guys who played James Bond were very much alike, but there’s more than one good Bond in film history, right?)

The film is an origin story of the scoundrel with a heart of gold, willing to shoot first and ask questions later and also put his life on the line to save the universe. I had no need to see Han’s past romantic relationships, but it is undeniably enjoyable when he meets Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) and Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) for the first time. The budding bond with Chewbacca made me smile, and Glover does Billy Dee Williams proud as the young Lando. In my opinion, he is the film’s shining star.

Not so much Emilia Clarke as Qi’ra, an early Han love interest who just doesn’t catch fire as a worthy character. She seems a bit lost here, perhaps one of the fatalities of switching directors midstream.

Playing an early associate in Han’s young gangster days, Woody Harrelson has a little more luck as the crusty Beckett. And Paul Bettany as Dryden Vos, the film’s central villain, just might be the dullest Star Wars bad guy yet. This film needed Jabba the Hut, but instead gets someone who sits around in a dark room sniveling.

There are a couple of fantastic action set pieces, including the Millennium Falcon’s infamous “Kessel Run” and a terrific train heist. When the film is in action mode, when the Falcon takes flight, and when Glover occupies the screen, Solo: A Star Wars Story soars. When Han pauses to chat or make out, it stops in its tracks. I enjoyed it … barely.