Summary:

Han, a street kid from Corellia manages to slip off the planet. Unfortunately, his best friend/girlfriend, Qi’ra, does not. Thus begins his quest to make some serious credits and get back to his home planet. Things don’t exactly go to plan, but like all things, Star Wars-y, they work out from a certain point of view.

Additional Comments:

– For a spin-off movie, it’s pretty good, but it lacks a major “Star Wars” feel for me. The Empire’s a fact of life in this timespan. The focus is on the fringe groups. Don’t get me wrong, I love the EU and was disappointed when Disney shook the magic etch sketch. For me, I guess it just suffers from being a spin-off, though to be fair, I’d say I enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than The Last Jedi because that was just depressing. (Did I mention I hate “to be continued…”?)

– The entire movie reads like they started with a hit-list of Solo references and tried to stuff in as many of them as possible. That makes it fun, but kind of like a story madlib. Surprisingly, they did all right with hitting major points. They did stretch for quite a few as well.

– It’s the movie equivalent of reading Tales of the Bounty Hunters. It’s got Star Wars in the title, so it’ll sell well.

– Twists:

For now, let’s just leave it at there are a few cool ones.

– Aside: Totally been thinking of Qi’ra’s name spelled as Kira.

– Characters (4/5):

You don’t really get attached to any of the initial crew Han runs into, except Chewie, of course. L3’s no K2SO, though she’s there as the comic relief droid. The obsession with equal rights for droids is funny at first, then just tiresome. Enfys Nest is intriguing. Thought that was the name of the group.

– Acting (4/5):

It’s well-done. Alden Ehrenreich isn’t Harrison Ford, but he does okay.

– Closure (4/5):

It’s definitely open for more, but this story ties up nicely.

– Replay value:

It’s good for 3-4 views tops. I’m at two views, might actually be the theater end for me. For perspective, I saw The Force Awakens 14 times and Rogue One 8 times.

Conclusion:

If you have the time, you should definitely go see Solo. Then, at the very least, you can join the conversation. Seems to be very little middle ground. You stand with the haters or the lovers.