Here’s the thing. A Star Wars movie made by Disney coming under a massive amount of criticism from a huge section of society seemingly mostly male and mostly the same age as me. What are they so upset about? I don’t know. The whole Star Wars phenomena is a hokey set of science-fiction stories that if examined under the cold light of day make very little sense. That includes the original films and examination as a callow teenager. Pining for feeling the same as you did then is a pointless and fruitless exercise. Me? I’d rather watch the film and see if I enjoyed it. I don’t care what’s coming next and I don’t really care what came before.
Firstly this is not a ‘Star Wars’ film, it’s more of a Star Wars set-up, there is no war and the resistance is just starting, so what we have is a gung-ho adventure. We’ve seen it many times before in westerns, war films and every genre ever made. The story is exciting and nail-biting with sacrifice, romance, double-crossing and heroics. It has finely defined heroes, villains and rogues. The plot isn’t complicated and is linear and easily digestible. What is wrong with that?
As expected there is a very, very, bad villain played by the every reliable Paul Bettany and twist that maybe you couldn’t see coming initially. The CGI is strong and not overwhelming, the comedy is comedic, the peril perilous and the romance romantic. It really is not that bad.
On the minus side, you could say it was extremely vanilla and for a Star Wars film perhaps even plain. Not me but I can see that point of view. There have also been complaints that Alden Ehrenreich is not like Harrison Ford in appearance and character during the film. Well, the appearance complaint is deranged, would you cast a less skilled unknown in the role because he might slightly resemble Ford rather than an actor who clearly knows his craft and certainly seemed to bring much of the original performances quirks to the screen. Emily Clarke as Solo’s love interest brings enough energy to the role although the onscreen chemistry was not as strong as some actors have been in other films. Woody Harrelson brings Woody Harelson to the role which sounds like an implied criticism but it really is not. He’s perfect for his pivotal role. All the other roles range from perfect to adequate, there’s no real bad acting on display after all this is a kids’ science-fiction baddies versus goodies film. We’re not looking at Richard III.
It does pay to remember that Ron Howard came in to direct the film after the original directors left and for a franchise as big and seemingly important to so many people this it was always going to be a difficult job. I have been a fairly stern critic of some of Howard’s output but in this case not so. He delivers a fine stand-alone adventure story set in a known universe without getting bogged down in the previous stories whilst pointing to them all the time. We get the crowd-pleasing and fun first meeting of Solo and Chewbacca alongside his first meetings with Lando and the beloved Millenium Falcon. It’s all fun. It’s meant to be fun.
So going against the grain I’d say overall I like this new adventure in the Star Wars universe. It was fun, full of robots and strange looking creatures, had English actors left, right and centre and had Clint Howard in it (just so you know it was a Ron Howard film). The CGI was impressive, the action sets and planets convincing but overall it was fun. Plain and simple fun and that is what a children’s science-fiction yarn should be about.
Just relax and enjoy the whole silly ride and don’t be foolish.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2018-07-20T20:37:06Z
Here’s the thing. A Star Wars movie made by Disney coming under a massive amount of criticism from a huge section of society seemingly mostly male and mostly the same age as me. What are they so upset about? I don’t know. The whole Star Wars phenomena is a hokey set of science-fiction stories that if examined under the cold light of day make very little sense. That includes the original films and examination as a callow teenager. Pining for feeling the same as you did then is a pointless and fruitless exercise. Me? I’d rather watch the film and see if I enjoyed it. I don’t care what’s coming next and I don’t really care what came before.
Firstly this is not a ‘Star Wars’ film, it’s more of a Star Wars set-up, there is no war and the resistance is just starting, so what we have is a gung-ho adventure. We’ve seen it many times before in westerns, war films and every genre ever made. The story is exciting and nail-biting with sacrifice, romance, double-crossing and heroics. It has finely defined heroes, villains and rogues. The plot isn’t complicated and is linear and easily digestible. What is wrong with that?
As expected there is a very, very, bad villain played by the every reliable Paul Bettany and twist that maybe you couldn’t see coming initially. The CGI is strong and not overwhelming, the comedy is comedic, the peril perilous and the romance romantic. It really is not that bad.
On the minus side, you could say it was extremely vanilla and for a Star Wars film perhaps even plain. Not me but I can see that point of view. There have also been complaints that Alden Ehrenreich is not like Harrison Ford in appearance and character during the film. Well, the appearance complaint is deranged, would you cast a less skilled unknown in the role because he might slightly resemble Ford rather than an actor who clearly knows his craft and certainly seemed to bring much of the original performances quirks to the screen. Emily Clarke as Solo’s love interest brings enough energy to the role although the onscreen chemistry was not as strong as some actors have been in other films. Woody Harrelson brings Woody Harelson to the role which sounds like an implied criticism but it really is not. He’s perfect for his pivotal role. All the other roles range from perfect to adequate, there’s no real bad acting on display after all this is a kids’ science-fiction baddies versus goodies film. We’re not looking at Richard III.
It does pay to remember that Ron Howard came in to direct the film after the original directors left and for a franchise as big and seemingly important to so many people this it was always going to be a difficult job. I have been a fairly stern critic of some of Howard’s output but in this case not so. He delivers a fine stand-alone adventure story set in a known universe without getting bogged down in the previous stories whilst pointing to them all the time. We get the crowd-pleasing and fun first meeting of Solo and Chewbacca alongside his first meetings with Lando and the beloved Millenium Falcon. It’s all fun. It’s meant to be fun.
So going against the grain I’d say overall I like this new adventure in the Star Wars universe. It was fun, full of robots and strange looking creatures, had English actors left, right and centre and had Clint Howard in it (just so you know it was a Ron Howard film). The CGI was impressive, the action sets and planets convincing but overall it was fun. Plain and simple fun and that is what a children’s science-fiction yarn should be about.
Just relax and enjoy the whole silly ride and don’t be foolish.