Ron Howard directs this latest Star Wars spin off focusing on Han Solo – but how has it been going down with critics?
The Guardian: **** ” With Howard at the controls, the movie is a fun-fuelled entertainment.”
What Culture.com: “It’s unfortunate to report that Solo: A Star Wars Story suffers from being overwhelmingly dull. The film offers nothing new and the stakes never feel like they’ll legitimately make an impact since you already know how things will turn out.”
Empire: **** “Ultimately, this is a different kind of Star Wars film to any that have gone before, with only hints of the main saga’s bigger fate-of-the-galaxy picture. And while that means the story lacks the depth some might crave, it still offers plenty of fun, and (impressively for a prequel) the odd surprise along the way.”
The Verge: “But Solo: A Star Wars Story is classic Star Wars, and if it ends up being the last time Lawrence Kasdan writes a movie in this universe, it’s one incredibly entertaining, instructive swan song.”
Vulture.com: ” Solo: A Star Wars Story hits all its marks except the one it needed to hit most: accounting for one of pop culture’s most cantankerous charismatics.”
rogerebert.com: ** 1/2 “If the entirety were as charming and unexpectedly haunting as the friendship between Han and Chewie, “Solo” might’ve been a classic. As is, it’s a frictionless trip down memory lane.”
Digital Spy: **** “While it won’t revolutionise the Star Wars landscape, it certainly doesn’t damage the Han Solo character in the way some fans feared.”
The Telegraph: **** “Much as the first “Star Wars Story” spin-off, Rogue One, modelled itself after classic men on-a-mission war films, Solo digs out two more old genres from cinema’s dressing-up box: the American western and the Weimar-era cloak-and-dagger thriller.”
BBC: *** ” instead of having an over-arching plot, Solo has a string of tenuously connected, protracted action set pieces, none of which is too coherent, and most of which are obscured by smoke and steam. ”