An "origins" film about one of Star Wars most popular characters must have seemed like a sure thing to the execs at Disney. However Solo had a troubled production, the comic directing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street) were replaced by Ron Howard a full five months into filming, and doubts by some at Disney about relatively unknown lead Alden Ehrenreich made there way into the press. When the film finally came out, a finicky fan base, and the fact that this was the 2nd Star Wars film to be released in six months, lead to a disappointing $103 million opening over the four day Memorial weekend (and isn't it weird that $103 million can be considered disappointing). This weaker then expected performance puts in doubt if the sequel film (which I presume would be called Han) which this film sets up will even be made, and is reportedly causing some reassessment at Disney about their ambitious production plans for the franchise and the extent to which they can milk the Star Wars cash cow.
Legitimate concerns about oversaturation not withstanding, I enjoyed Solo, and would be curios to see that sequel (this is not a New Hope joke by the way). I thought the movie was fun, and didn't have as much of those solemn/serious undertones so present in the franchise after the original trilogy. If Rouge One was a Star Wars version of one those World War II secret mission movies, Solo is Star Wars as caper film. It has a good, likable cast of supporting characters including Emilia Clark and Woody Harrelson, and while Ehrenreich's lead performance was not the spot on channeling of Billie Dee Williams that Donald Glover provides as Lando Calrissian, I thought it seemed true enough for a younger version of the Harrison Ford original. Though it keeps its risks at a minimum I though Solo got more out its market research premise then might be expected, do in large part no doubt to the presence of veteran Star Wars scripter Lawrence Kasdan and his son Jonathan as the screenwriters.
While the standard of some Star Wars fans seem impossible to meet, if your primary interest is a reasonably intelligent, but mostly diverting good time, I'd readily recommend Solo either alone or in a group. ***
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