Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story

Back in the late 80s, I would regularly poke around a local secondhand bookshop's science fiction section and stumbled on  - and eagerly snapped up, a number of Star Wars spin-off novels featuring Han Solo and Chewbacca's adventures before Star Wars.  They were a lot of fun from memory and featured covers of the duo usually engaged in some firefight.

The film, Solo, invokes a lot of the same spirit as these earlier novels - even down to the cover art or in this case, the lead, only somewhat resembling Harrison Ford's take on the character and physical appearance.   Also for my money, it's the most joyous of the new Star Wars films. Frankly, it's great to see the gang back in action again.

Ehrenreich -  thankfully - doesn't try to impersonate a younger Ford. He simply channels enough of the key beats of Han's character to make him recognisable. He's not quite as world weary as Ford, but that's to be expected given the timeline. The delivery of certain lines - "190 years' old? You look great!" - feel perfectly on point.

The humour was an unexpected bonus and some of best bits in it. So much so, I think they could have pushed it a little more. Glover doesn't get much screen time as Calrissian, but he's superb. So also is Waller-Bridge as the droid rights championing L3. Clarke feels slightly muted and underused though.

Of the behind the scenes troubles, there's little evidence of them on screen.  It's a heist - and an origins - movie for the inseparable smuggling pair and I hope like the books, the first in a number of spin offs.

Verdict: Recaptures much of the old escapist magic.