Question Solo: A Star Wars Review (Spoilers)

Having seen it now, it (at least to me) seems clear that the rumors that Phil Lord and Chris Miller WERE poking fun at Kathleen Kennedy and her activism with L3-37 and the way ALL of the other characters react to 'her' as she floats through her fantasy world are exactly the 'creative differences' they were fired for. Even if that wasn't Lord and Miller's intention, I would be willing to bet Kennedy saw herself in that loopy droid SJW and got PISSED.

It was really nice to see the Pyke Syndicate finally become canon. I had always wondered what a live action Pyke would look like and Ron didn't disappoint. If you're wondering, that's this guy...



Paul Bettany never disappoints, and his sophisticated, casually sadistic Dryden Vos drops absolutely perfectly into the Star Wars mythos. My sole complaint about the character is his makeup. The red lines were very distracting, not enough to sell me on 'near human alien' too much for a major budget production and that left the character looking, honestly, fan filmy. Which is a shame because he is, as villain everything Kylo Ren and the First Order aren't. He's scary and I can believe he not only kills people for profit but enjoys doing it.

Which brings us to Qi'ra. Emilia Clarke is a beautiful young woman, regal, stunning and visually in those Ralph McQuarrie-esque 40s inspired action heroine outfits and gowns she is truly breathtaking.

It's a real shame she can't act.

Oh she hits her marks and says the lines, but the woman just can't emote. Her betrayal of Han is telegraphed from their reunion on Vos's yacht and she never strikes me as someone Han Solo would fall as deeply in love with as is shown. Its a shame. The teaser of more films around these younger characters as Han sorts himself out would, honestly, be welcome, minus Jon Kasdan riding on his father's coat tails and injecting his fan fic level stupidity into Star Wars. Sorry, Jonny, Star Wars was the ORIGINAL inclusive fandom and we don't need your sick crap being shoved into it. Lando does NOT want to have sex with a toaster.

The Kessel Run... *sigh* Never has so much been made over a throw away line over what was supposed to be simple bravado. As we see in the original script:

The Shooting Script of Star Wars wrote: HAN
Fast ship? You've never heard of the
Millennium Falcon?

BEN
Should I have?

HAN
It's the ship that made the Kessel
run in less than twelve parsecs!

Ben reacts to Solo's stupid attempt to impress them with
obvious misinformation.

Much like ONLY Han shooting, this bit was better left alone, but there is a VERY vocal minority of fans determined for Han to be 'right' about this, thus this convoluted sequence. I suppose I shouldn't complain, beings living in the vacuum of space have been a thing in the Star Wars universe since Mynocks and Space Slugs, and Rebels' Purrgil, but...eh. It's always been jarring for me. Not enough to get bent over, but it's a eye roll every time.

I have to say I was confused about Enfys Nest, the leader of the Cloud-Rider's Swoop Gang. The actress they choose could EASILY have been the child of Tobias Beckett and Val, but for whatever reason they chose to ignore that. It struck me as odd as that casting decision had to be deliberate and I can't be the only one to make that connection. No, it didn't bother me she was a girl, it's Star Wars, we didn't invent the strong female lead, we just named her Leia. She DID strike me as being too young, but youth worship is also a Star Wars thing, so...

So, let's talk about the Hutt in the room, Alden Ehrenreich. I really want to like Alden, it's obvious he feels the weight of what he's been asked to do and is trying very hard to live up to a nearly impossible standard. My nitpick goes back to my defense of Hayden Christensen as Anakin; actors depend on the director to get from them the performance required for the part. Anakin was not Hayden's fault, it was George Lucas' fault. He gave bad direction and Hayden, even after voicing concern, followed, because that is what a professional does. Alden's performance is muddled between two competing visions and a false assumption. Why would a young man, who had the childhood Han Solo had, be so...optimistic? The early Han we see, brooding, rebellious, that's what I expected. But then Han joins the Imperial Army, gets tossed out of flight school, falls in with a gang of criminals and...channels Luke Skywalker? I like the kid, it's obvious he's doing his best, but he's not Han Solo yet. He could be, if he gets another shot at the character and we find out what was going on with Qi'ra and Maul, but he just wasn't there yet. Shame really, I think his acting is the biggest tell between the two sets of directors. Though I am curious to know which was Ron, and which was Lord and Miller.