Full disclosure: I thought The Last Jedi was the worst movie in years, and easily the worst Star Wars movie ever made. That said, Solo is a fun, inoffensive story that is light on the Jedi hand-wringing and heavy on the action, and that is exactly what Disney's Star Wars needed.
The actors, every last one, did a really great job. I might be Harrison Ford's biggest fan and didn't know what to expect from Alden Ehrenreich, and I think he did absolutely fantastic here. The writers didn't, but that's not the actors' faults, and I was very pleased to see in Emillia Clarke that Disney is in fact capable of finding a female lead that is actually likable. The writing is in my opinion a little sub-par, and turns Han Solo from a rough-and-tumble rapscallion who takes it where he can get it into a heart-of-gold victim of society. Solo makes a lot of weird little mistakes (Lando's droid is absolutely insufferably cringeworthy and almost made me turn the movie off) but I forgive it for three reasons:
1: There is a scene that takes place on Kessel which sucks. The immediate scene afterwards is outstanding and is easily one of my favourite Star Wars moments ever. 2: It is better than The Last Jedi by several orders of magnitude. Then again, a round of chemotherapy is better than TLJ, but my point stands. 3: It still has a weird social justice underpinning, but at least it goes precisely one hour before it starts beating you over the head with it.
Other than that, aside from a pretty unsatisfying ending (the penultimate story twist is just so stupid) I enjoyed this movie, and after TLJ I honestly thought I wouldn't ever enjoy Star Wars movies again. Props to Ron Howard and all the actors, because if they can get a couple more movies like this out Star Wars might be cool again one day.
The actors, every last one, did a really great job. I might be Harrison Ford's biggest fan and didn't know what to expect from Alden Ehrenreich, and I think he did absolutely fantastic here. The writers didn't, but that's not the actors' faults, and I was very pleased to see in Emillia Clarke that Disney is in fact capable of finding a female lead that is actually likable. The writing is in my opinion a little sub-par, and turns Han Solo from a rough-and-tumble rapscallion who takes it where he can get it into a heart-of-gold victim of society. Solo makes a lot of weird little mistakes (Lando's droid is absolutely insufferably cringeworthy and almost made me turn the movie off) but I forgive it for three reasons:
1: There is a scene that takes place on Kessel which sucks. The immediate scene afterwards is outstanding and is easily one of my favourite Star Wars moments ever. 2: It is better than The Last Jedi by several orders of magnitude. Then again, a round of chemotherapy is better than TLJ, but my point stands. 3: It still has a weird social justice underpinning, but at least it goes precisely one hour before it starts beating you over the head with it.
Other than that, aside from a pretty unsatisfying ending (the penultimate story twist is just so stupid) I enjoyed this movie, and after TLJ I honestly thought I wouldn't ever enjoy Star Wars movies again. Props to Ron Howard and all the actors, because if they can get a couple more movies like this out Star Wars might be cool again one day.