Solo: A Star Wars Story

There's a lot to love about Solo: A Star Wars Story.

True love drives a cocky youth to make bold romantic decisions which aeronautically diversify his portfolio even if she's regrettably moved on.

A sassy droid (Phoebe Waller-Bridge as L3-37) that takes Dot Matrix up a notch adds homely elfish character that ruggedly protests as it swiftly confides.

The quotidian nuances outlandish improvised decisions with real world grit that's intergalactically localized.

The dangers as well as the thrills of risking everything for a cut make wild endeavours seem appealing yet threatening inasmuch as improbability mortally beckons.

41/38 years later fans finally get to see Han (Alden Ehrenreich) meet Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) then Lando (Donald Glover).

It's co-starring Woody Harrelson (Beckett).

The kessel run is both defined and showcased.

Emilia Clarke impresses as Qi'ra.

And audacious reckoning munificently makes for a gripping spine-tingling finale.

Non-stop action, exuberant spirits, phenomenal fusions, surefire soul.

If only it had been a little less hokey.

A little more dreadful.

A lot more Chewbacca.

It's missing the bone-chilling malicious sense of resilient desperation that realistically held The Last Jedi, Rogue One, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: Civil War, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, and The Wrath of Khan together.

The characters are desperate, and undeniably resilient, but the film's still so confidently assured that nothing could go wrong that I never truly felt worried or fearful or oppressed.

It's like Solo was written for young kids and the aged simultaneously, those who were around 20 when A New Hope was released now being around 61 years of age.

Thus there are myriad sequences that demand your full attention, but it's so formulaic that it seems like nothing could possibly go wrong.

I may have cut the opening 10-15 minutes.

Turned them into a series of flashbacks.

Han and Qi'ra's love story isn't even featured throughout the film.

It never feels like they'll eventually get together.

It doesn't matter that fans know they don't get together.

When it wasn't released at Christmas I figured something was up.

I still confuse Thandie Newton (Val) and Zoe Saldana.