Solo: A Star Wars Story [SteelBook] [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray] [Only @ Best Buy] [2018]

Of the four Star Wars films that have been released under Disney’s stewardship, the two spin offs have been much stronger than the main saga entries. This was confirmed for me when I took in Ron Howard’s SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY last night. Though not without flaws, the tale of young Han Solo and how he met Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian offers up some entertaining performances, great sci fi visuals, and thrilling action sequences. While lead Alden Ehrenreich’s turn as the iconic Solo will never eclipse character originator Harrison Ford’s, he doesn’t do a bad job. Furthermore, the rest of the cast is strong enough to carry the film and give you less time to be jarred by the role change. Woody Harrelson is typically magnetic as Han’s roguish mentor, Tobias Beckett. Meeting in the midst of a battle involving the Empire, Beckett immediately demonstrates his cleverness. Emilia Clarke, of GAME OF THRONES fame, plays Han’s fellow Corellian and love interest, Qi’ra. She’s Han’s rock but when they meet again after a forced separation, she harbors secrets the naïve Solo discounts. Possibly the most memorable performance is Donald Glover’s inspired Lando Calrissian. Charismatic, duplicitous, and handsome, Calrissian is a great foil to Han’s rough around the edges approach. Glover was a great pick to inhabit Billy Dee Williams’ caped gambler. We also get Paul Bettany playing against type as a scarred and sinister crime boss, Thandie Newton as Beckett’s gruff and suspicious partner, and Jon Favreau as a friendly and energetic four armed alien pilot. Perhaps my favorite performance, though, is Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Lando’s droid companion, L3-37. She steals scenes with her passion for robotic liberation politics and delivering withering retorts. Featuring top-notch special effects and stellar production design, the film mostly looks good. As with any Star Wars film, the costumes and character designs are magnificent. CGI beasts and ‘bots are integrated flawlessly into the visuals, though the practical effects are what give the film its lived-in and relatively naturalistic quality. My one beef with how the film looks is that the presentation is a bit on the darker side. Now that’s appropriate for a film dealing with a bunch of outlaws, but it makes the viewing a little too murky. Besides that small complaint, the rest of the technical aspects are strong. Action sequences and compositions are well done and engaging. The script by legendary saga scribe Lawrence Kasdan and son Jonathan Kasdan provides just a little too much fan service but otherwise gives a pleasing structure to this origin story while still laying the groundwork for future adventures or spinoffs. In that way, it reminds me of how Marvel does its cinematic universe building with Easter eggs and hints about the rich galactic tapestry these characters reside within. Although it didn’t exactly set the box office on fire, perhaps because of the troubled production where director Ron Howard was brought on after original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired, or because people were skeptical about the mostly unknown Ehrenreich taking on such an iconic role, I nevertheless hope we see more of young Han’s (mis)adventures. SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY is entertaining, despite a few minor quibbles, and features some intriguing plot points that are begging for follow up. Trouble behind the scenes gave the public the impression that the final product might not be good but I’m happy to report that it’s better than its reputation suggests. Along with its sister spinoff, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, it proves that Disney is capable of producing a solid Star Wars story. I’m actually looking forward to future spinoffs more than the saga capping Episode IX. If you love Star Wars and are open to a different take on Han Solo, I highly recommend you give this a shot.

On the planet Corellia, orphaned children are made to steal in order to survive. Lovers Han and Qi'ra make an escape from the clutches of a local gang. They bribe an Imperial officer with stolen coaxium, a powerful hyperspace fuel, in exchange for passage on an outgoing transport, but Qi'ra is apprehended by their pursuers before she can board. Han vows to return for her and joins the Imperial Navy as a flight cadet. When the recruiting officer asks for his surname, Han says he is alone with no family, so the recruiter gives him the last name "Solo". Three years later, Han is expelled from the Imperial Flight Academy for insubordination and is serving as an infantryman on Mimban. He encounters a group of criminals posing as Imperial soldiers led by Tobias Beckett. Han attempts to blackmail them into taking him with them, but Beckett has him arrested for desertion and thrown into a pit to be fed to a beast—a Wookiee named Chewbacca. Able to understand Chewbacca's language, Han persuades him to cooperate to escape. Beckett, aware of the usefulness of a Wookiee's strength, rescues and enlists them in the gang to steal a shipment of coaxium on Vandor-1. The plan goes awry when the Cloud Riders show up, led by Enfys Nest, resulting in the deaths of two crew members, Rio Durant and Beckett's wife Val, and the destruction of the coaxium. Beckett reveals he was ordered to steal the shipment for Dryden Vos, a high-ranking crime boss in the Crimson Dawn syndicate. Han and Chewbacca volunteer to help him steal another shipment to repay the debt. They travel to Vos' yacht where Han finds Qi'ra, who has joined Crimson Dawn and is Vos' top lieutenant. Han suggests a risky plan to steal unrefined coaxium from the mines on Kessel; Vos approves but insists that Qi'ra accompany the team. She leads them to Lando Calrissian, an accomplished smuggler and pilot who she hopes will lend them his ship. Han challenges Lando to a game of sabacc, with the wager being Lando's ship. Lando cheats to win but agrees to join the mission in exchange for a share of the profits. After reaching Kessel in the Millennium Falcon and infiltrating the mine, Lando's droid co-pilot L3-37 instigates a slave revolt. In the confusion, they steal the coaxium, but L3 is severely damaged and Lando is injured during the escape. With the help of L3's navigational computer, hotwired into the ship's systems, Han pilots the ship through the dangerous and uncharted Kessel Run to elude an Imperial blockade. The Falcon, badly damaged, lands on the planet Savareen to process the coaxium. During a confrontation with Enfys, who tracked the team from Vandor, Lando flees in the Falcon. Enfys explains to Han that she and her crew are not pirates, but rebels trying to prevent the syndicates and Empire from gaining power. Han becomes sympathetic to their cause and tries to trick Vos, but Beckett has already alerted him to the double-cross. Vos sends his guards to kill Enfys, but the Cloud Riders overpower them instead, leaving Vos defenseless. Having anticipated Vos' strategy, Han tries to take the coaxium, only for Beckett to betray Vos, escaping with it and taking Chewbacca hostage. Qi'ra kills Vos and sends Han after Beckett; once alone, she contacts Vos' superior, Maul, to inform him of the mission's failure and claim Vos' position. She avoids speaking of Han's involvement, instead blaming everything on Beckett. Han catches up to Beckett and confronts him, shooting Beckett before he can return fire. With his dying words Beckett tells Han he made a smart choice. Qi'ra leaves in Vos' yacht, while Han and Chewbacca turn the coaxium over to Enfys. She offers Han a chance to join the rebellion against the Empire; when he declines, she gives him a vial of coaxium, enough to buy a ship of his own. Han and Chewbacca locate Lando and challenge him to a rematch in sabacc, once again wagering the Falcon. Han wins, having stolen the card Lando was keeping up his sleeve in order to cheat, and he and Chewbacca leave for Tatooine, where a "big-shot gangster" is putting together a job.

I was a bit perplexed and disappointed that more people didn’t like Solo. I thought that it was a fun and surprisingly substantive dive into Solo’s backstory. Watched as a Star Wars take on a western movie, it works very well. Paul Bettany gives a fantastic performance as Dryden Vos. Emilia Clarke is equally as wonderful as Qi’ra, playing her complicated role convincingly. Donald Glover shines as a young Lando that I thought was the most faithful performance to the original Star Wars movies. He really does convince you that he’s a young Lando. Woody Harrelson does a good job of portraying a seemingly dry character in Beckett that turns out to make complete sense at the end of the movie. However, you can see the scraps of a movie that had to be rescued mid-production by Ron Howard. The “feel” of the movie seems to shift mid movie to a more story focused mindset, which I felt was a good move. Most of the first part of the movie drags with very little character exploration. It seems you’re 45 minutes into the movie and still haven’t met all of the major characters. Also, L3 is an interesting character that both somehow manages to bring humor to the movie but also annoying you all at once. The group of heroes never really seem to meet any seemingly insurmountable challenge. You never really feel like there’s any chance they’re going to fail at what they’re doing so the movie leaves you really unsurprised when they manage to squeak out of trouble. Still definitely worth a watch in my book. My expectations were high for this movie despite the fact that it seemed to be left for dead by the hardcore fanbase before it even hit the box office. Give it a chance and I promise you’ll like it.

I would consider myself a pretty decent Star Wars enthusiast; so that being said I had no idea what to expect from Disney’s take on a Han Solo origin story. Would Disney stay true to Han’s character and back story? Or would they tamper with the Han we have all came to love over the years? So surprisingly enough when Disney fired Phil Lord and Chris Miller the original directors and replaced them with director Ron Howard I figured this would be the beginning of the end for Solo’s legacy. Ironically enough Howard was still able to create something from the mess that the prior directors left him with. Solo ended up becoming a unique story centered on Han’s shenanigans prior to joining the Rebel Alliance. Since Disney took over the Star Wars franchise I feel their take on the Star Wars universe has been hit or miss. The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi both felt like a bust, however I thoroughly enjoyed Rogue One. Solo has now joined Rogue One in becoming one my favorite Star Wars films. So if you find yourself needing a Star Wars pick me up, just ask yourself one question . . . got Solo?

I was pleasantly surprised by the actual movie and, as usual, you've really got to see a movie for yourself to form an opinion about it. It's a little flat at times, but once the main characters start coming together, the movie turns into a great ride with a more wild west, gunslinger alternative story to the Skywalker dominated stories we've all grown up on. It's nice to finally see something not tied directly to the main films, as that's what's always made say... Star Wars novels, comics and games pretty interesting. Film aside, I felt the 4K UHD could have been better. It's definitely superior to the regular blu-ray, with it's expanded highlight range, rich, earthy color pallet, but from everything I've gathered the film was shot to be low contrast with somewhat grey black levels that can make it a pain for HDR TV's with lower nits to really tonemap properly. Unless you're really confident in your 4K TV's ability to handle HDR, you might find it too dim and dark to really see, and end up wanting to mess with your TV settings, causing more harm than good. It's an understandable aesthetic choice which does have merit, and is apparently true to the theatrical experience, but it doesn't necessarily translate to home theater in a particularly legible or exciting way. I was really hoping Solo, being the second Star Wars film to release on UHD, would turn out better than Last Jedi did in regards the black levels of the transfer, but it was more or less the same. I can say the HDR highlights, lighting, fire and lasers packed a bit more punch though. I can still enjoy both of these films on UHD, but I have to provide a fair warning.

When George Lucas sold LucasFilm, including Star Wars, there was much grumbling in the fan base -- the biggest question: What would Disney do to the franchise they so loved? We now have 4 feature films and 2 new animated series by which to judge Disney's stewardship of the franchise, and it is a mixed bag. The latest installment is Solo, one of Disney's new 'A Star Wars Stories' spin off films. Although not one of the best Star Wars films (for me that remains Star Wars, or as it is now called Ep IV A New Hope) Solo is actually a well done film and like its predecessor, Rouge One, a nice addition to the Star Wars Franchise. The story itself is relatively simple -- Boy loses Girl, Boy regains Girl, Girl has her own agenda. Given the material they have to work with, the cast acquits themselves admirably, and indeed several do excellent work (particularly Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover and Erin Kellyman). Art Direction is excellent - this looks like the galaxy we remember from the original Star Wars trilogy and although Ron Howard was brought in as a replacement director after production had already begun, he and his crew & actors have made a worthy addition to the saga. (One can only wonder how this film would have turned out had the original directors been allowed to finish the film.) Video & Audio on the Blu-ray disc are excellent with a nice collection of supplemental material for fans to dive into. Again, this is not he best Star Wars film, but it is certainly not the worst.

** NOTE ** There is one spoiler in my review for this product. Stop reading here if you have an objection to it or haven't watched the movie yet. ******************** I thought the steelbook for this movie was nicely thought out for the most part. The picture of the Falcon is nice and colorful on the front but the artwork on the back was underwhelming. The interior of the steelbook has a pretty good shot of the interior of the falcon on both sides. The movie itself just didn't work for me. Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo and Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian were ok, as in fast food burger ok. The rest of the characters were forgettable at best. My biggest objection to the film was having Darth Maul make a cameo; it was ridiculous. You would think a person as powerful as the Emperor would know he's still miraculously alive even after being cut in half by Obi-Wan in Episode I. Obviously the cameo was a tip of the hat to the newer and inferior animated Clone Wars series as I'd heard they'd resurrected his character in that show. Overall, I feel this movie is worth a rental at best. It's a pretty decent steelbook but beyond that is questionable at best. Therefore, I can't recommend it.

While I thought the idea of an origin story for a solidly established character was unnecessary, the film is a decent story in the Star Wars universe. The characters are likable, the action is good, and overall it feels like part of the universe. However, having said that, I thought the film does come up a bit short in several instances - where Solo got his name (SERIOUS let down and unnecessary), the villain (decent, but not as intimidating as one would've hoped), and they killed off several of the more likable and interesting supporting characters (not to mention the Falcon's navigation computer). Lastly, the film ends with a hint at Han's travel to Tatooine, trying to pair the film to the original Star Wars, almost forcing the connection. Again, considering how well we already knew this character, pointing out the connection to Jabba and Tatooine is just a blunt and weak attempt to fit it to Star Wars, which isn't even needed at all. Overall, the film is an enjoyable romp through the galaxy with an interesting heist story, and the cast is a good set of characters. Hollywood needs to learn that you don't need to force things, to press connections to other films in such a blatant way, and instead give their audience a little mental credit. Subtly and discovery are great tools to give the audience, instead of hammering bluntly to make sure we (the audience) know how it "fits" in the rest of the cinematic series. A fun film, but a few blaster shots short of a great one.