Solo: A Star Wars Story Review - 7 Ups And 4 Downs

1. How It Deepens Han's Character

A question that's been asked a lot ever since Lucasfilm announced a Han Solo movie is 'what's the point?'

We go through the whole Original Trilogy with Han, and he changes a lot throughout, but he arrives as a fully-formed character; he's a smuggler, a rogue, who is eventually convinced of the bigger picture. What more do we need to see?

Solo takes us right back to Han as an 18-year-old on Corellia, where we see him as an Artful Dodger type making the most of a bad situation, but with dreams of making it out. Across the film he continually tries to put on a front that he's a criminal; he insists he isn't the good guy, and the facade is that of the Han we'll eventually come to know.

But underneath that, and played so well by Ehrenreich, is a heart of gold. The thing he wants to deny is that he is the good guy, and this film balances that with his own attempts to hide it, and eventually what would become the cynicism that becomes such a natural part of the character.

It means that the Han we see in The Force Awakens, who not only rejoins the fight but also has to show real heart and emotion, opening himself up to try and save his son, isn't simply a continuation of his progression from Star Wars, but almost more of a coming full circle for the character.

At the same time as it's doing that, it's almost making this Han far more relatable than any other iteration. He was always the cool guy, the one you might want to be but probably weren't, yet here he's far more down-to-Earth, and that allows audiences to identify with the character in a whole new way.