Solo: A Star Wars Story is directed by Ron Howard and it is an origin story for Han Solo. The movie explores Han’s different friendships and how he came to be the scruffy-looking nerf herder that we know him as. It stars Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Joonas Suotamo and Paul Bettany.

The moment it was announced that this movie was about to be made, fans weren’t really interested especially in the midst of Rogue One and the adventures of Rey, Finn and BB-8. When the trailer came out, people didn’t pay much attention either and many people and fans decided to give this movie a pass. Now the reviews and the poor buzz is surrounding the movie and unfortunately since today people refuse to simply have an opinion for their own, they decide to stick to Rotten Tomatoes or YouTube movie critics’s opinions instead of actually watching the movie and forming their own opinion. As a result this movie isn’t doing so well and it’s a damn shame because this is actually a good movie, worth seeing in the cinema, not in 3D though, don’t waste your money on 3D for this one.

If I’m going to be honest I wasn’t planning to go see this movie or at least I wasn’t sure. Although I was planning to watch it when it came out on DVD/Blu-Ray. My friend went to an early screening and praised the movie, saying it was better than Rogue One, so I was intrigued, I bought a ticket and saw the movie for myself and I am glad I did because Solo: A Star Wars Story is pure popcorn fun and it’s as adventurous as it’s action-packed. I love what they did with the character of Han, Ahrenreich steals the movie with his charming and charismatic performance as Han Solo and I really hope this movie launches his career, he was great! Glover as Lando Calrissian is one of the finest examples of an actor having the time of his life playing a character. He and Ahrenreich owned the movie and their chemistry is electric, anytime they’re in a scene together you can’t help but smile.

“Solo” is a movie which has me torn for the simple reason it exists. I like the movie quite a bit but at the end of the day I think it was unnecessary. It doesn’t do anything big or reveal a major revelation. Unlike Rogue One which actually led to a major event, the beginning of A New Hope, Solo doesn’t. No spoilers here but while the ending will leave you smiling because it’s a great ending to this type of movie, it also leaves you a bit underwhelmed. I did say it’s a very enjoyable movie although but that’s all it is and to be honest what were any of us expecting from a Han Solo movie after all. There is no emotional effort or scenes which leave you thinking, it’s just a turn your brain off for two hours kind of movie, it’s full of entertaining action, some humor, great performances and it’s a visually stunning movie. Also the score by John Powell who is one of my favourite composers made a really emotion-heavy score filled with beautiful tracks.

In fact the visuals are one of the movie’s greatest strengths, the colours jump off the screen vividly. The cinematography is also eye-catching particularly in the action scenes involving any type of ship especially the Millenium Falcon. The performances are very strong, as I mentioned earlier Ahrenreich and Glover were show-stealers but apart from those two there were some others who stood out as well like Bettany as Dryden Vos who was wickedly fun to watch, unfortunately he did not get a lot of screen-time but with the little time he had, he wasted none of it. Clarke was also charming in her portrayal as Q’Ira although her character makes certain choices and in my opinion it damages her character. Harrelson is Harrelson, he is always great in any role, his role here was a bit of a waste considering the lousy turn it takes after the second act but that is the script’s fault not his. One of my favourite characters is the new droid, L3-37, she was hilarious and made some important remarks about droid discrimination in the galaxy. It wasn’t forced or anything but the way her “character” deals with it and how she responds is realistic.

In the end Solo: A Star Wars Story is an enjoyable summer blockbuster set in the Star Wars Universe and it has humor and heart. It doesn’t try to be something new and exciting which can bother some people. Whether you go see this movie or not should depend on you not on someone else’s opinion, I say if you’re a Star Wars fan than you should go see it and even if you’re not a fan, it’s a fun movie on it’s own as well. Also side note: every time I go see a Star Wars movie I see a lot of fathers with their children, fans from generation to generation and with Solo there was a father and his daughter and as they left the room I was behind them and I heard the girl say “that was awesome!” and seeing a new generation experience this saga is really amazing, Star Wars is timeless and Solo proves to be a worthy addition even though it may be deemed as unnecessary.

RATING: B-