Solo's solo

Han Solo is the Captain Haddock of Star Wars: the one who provides all the fun while Luke Skywalker is being the noble but bland Tintin. In Solo: A Star Wars Story, the young Solo has finally taken centre stage. Is he really up to it?

Almost a year and a half after its release, does anybody still remember anything about Rogue One, the first Star Wars spin-off? The second spin-off, Solo: A Star Wars Story, looked as though it was going to be a complete disaster. Halfway through the shoot, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the pair behind The Lego Movie, suddenly got fired. Hollywood veteran Ron Howard (Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon) had to come in and save the day. And he did. Solo is definitely one of the better blockbusters in cinemas at the moment. But whether you will actually remember anything about Solo’s moment in the sun in a year and half is another matter.

After a shaky start, the film kicks into gear. The young Han is a pick-pocket who dreams of being an astronaut. After a stint in the army, he joins Tobias Beckett’s (Woody Harrelson) merry gang of thieves. After a spectacular train robbery, he goes on a raid with his childhood sweetheart Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones), on the orders of a psychopathic crime baron Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany).

In keeping with good Star Wars tradition, there is no shortage of plot and storylines. They mostly serve as glue for the spectacular set pieces and provide numerous scene changes. This is desperately needed. Like every other Star Wars film, Solo’s Force depends almost entirely on its army of set builders, make-up artists, costume designers, special effects wizards, and all the creative minds who come up with weird and wonderful planets, the creatures that inhabit them, and all their colourful spaceships.

Like a good father, Ron Howard carefully ensures that we get the right balance of action, humour, adventure, and romance and of obsessive Star Wars fan-fun and everyone-fun. Irrelevant questions get answered. Where did Han get his surname? How did he become friends with Chewbacca? How did a pickpocket from Corellia come to own the lightning-fast Millennium Falcon? Alden Ehrenreich does all he can to serve up an identifiable Han Solo without just being a crass imitation of Harrison Ford. The problem he faces is that Han Solo works better as an atmospheric side show than as a soloist. Just like Captain Haddock.