seen on 2 July 2018
Ron Howard directs Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo, Emilia Clarke as his friend Qi'ra, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, and Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, with Woody Harrelson as Beckett, Thandie Newton as Val, Phoebe Waller-Bridge voicing L3-37 and Paul Bettany as Dryden Vos.
This is another 'fill-in-the-gaps' movie (see also Rogue One), concentrating on the young Han Solo as he escapes a life of child-slavery but fails to toe the line, and so becoes enmeshed in shady dealings with endless opportunities for derring-do and sharp one-liners. Central to the story, in terms of the wider Star Wars franchise, are three significant events: meeting Chewbacca, meeting Lando Calrissian, and 'winning' the Millennium Falcon, and all are more than satisfactorily dealt with.
Ehrenreich gives an engaging performance, wide-eyed innocence concealing the beginnings of a more cynical outlook, with a disarming grin, an uncomplicated self-belief, and a daredevil inclination to improvise. The villain is hardly villainous enough - Paul Bettany failing to chew the scenery or exude much menace - and the older hand not really sufficiently grizzled - Woody Harrelson a little too bland to be a serious role model for the later Han's roguishness as embodied by Harrison Ford - but there is an interesting development for Emilia Clarke's engimatic Qi'ra.
Good fun but not earth-shattering.
