Movie Review: Solo A Star Wars Story.

It’s a great movie, however the troubled production values do show in the pacing. Three different directors attempted to bring this tale to the big screen. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were both attached and both left due to creative differences. In comes Ron Howard, whose been George Lucas right hand man since the days of American Graffiti. The film does come together by the finale, but it’s slow getting there. Not as slow as Attack of the Clones, but, even though the film boasts some great action the action doesn’t seem to go very far and is sometimes detached from the story. Alden Ehrenreich is having a lot of fun and is convincing enough, but he just doesn’t remind me of Harrison Ford. Granted the young actor had some pretty big shoes to fill and I did enjoy how he handled the part but he just didn’t quite reach Ford’s stature. The stand out here is Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian who chews up the scenery every time he’s on-screen, the close second would be Woody Harrelson who mentors the young Solo into a life of smuggling.

The story starts with Han living in the slums of Corellia dreaming of getting off of this hunk of rock, much like Luke ached to get off Tatooine in the original film. When Han finally gets off the dead-end world he’s living on, he winds up leaving his girlfriend (Emilia Clarke) behind. In true Roguish style Han is kicked out of the Empire’s flight academy then joins the Imperial army. Han runs into Tobias Beckett (Harrelson) Han can’t make enough friends as Beckett turns him over to the authorities where he has to fight the “beast” none other than the character who would become his life long companion Chewbacca (Suotamo). Beckett has orders from the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate to steal coaxium, a type of fuel. Han becomes reunited with his girlfriend but the reunion is not what he expected. Fans finally get to see, after about 40 years, the Millennium Falcon make the Kessel run in 12 parsecs and references to other Star Wars pop culture both in and outside of the movie franchises abound. It’s a fun film and another dose of adrenalin for those of us who can’t get enough of the Lucasverse. However, it’s not the strongest entry in the series. *** (8.2 rating)

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Director: Ron Howard
Producer: Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur, Simon Emanuel
Writer: Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan
Based on Characters by George Lucas
Starring:

Alden Ehrenreich
Woody Harrelson
Emilia Clarke
Donald Glover
Thandie Newton
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Joonas Suotamo
Paul Bettany

Music: John Powell, John Williams Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cinematography: Bradford Young
Editor: Pietro Scalia
Production company: Lucasfilm Ltd.

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Kevin Given

Kevin Given has studied with â€œ Longridge Writers Group â€ and â€œ Writerâ€™s Boot Camp â€ a speech/communications major from the University of Maine Presque-Isle/Orono sites. He has created the â€œ Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter â€ franchise which includes novels and comic books. They can be found on amazon, Indyplanet and Kindle. For a limited time you can get digital copies of â€œ Karl Vincent: Vampire hunter â€ # 1 and â€œ Files of Karl Vincent â€ # 1 for free on Indyplanet. Kevin is producing the third novel in the series â€œ Dracula Rising â€ (working title) and developing â€œ Foul Blood â€ into comic book form. Don't forget to check out the YouTube show " Comics: Let's Talk " hosted by Kevin Given