Despite the lackluster box office numbers, we still had fun with Solo: A Star Wars Story when we saw it. When watching it a second time, the film lost a little bit of its luster. It just isn’t the same. The jokes don’t seem to land as much the second time around. As a result, the film isn’t as fun. Be that as it may, certain gags do still hit their mark and provide you with laughs or maybe even a little smile.
Unfortunately, this only adds to the previous lazy story and character issues. The issue of Solo’s trademark features being blatantly highlighted is highlighted even more. Once you know the surprises, seeing them once again only makes this issue worse.
At least the action sequences still have the same impact that it did before. Then again, it’s pretty difficult to make an awesome action sequence not awesome. Also, any sort of signs of disjointedness still can’t be found. It’s honestly a miracle that there aren’t any tonal issues considering all of the behind-the-scenes issues. The job that Ron Howard did in salvaging what was shot and put together a coherent film should be commended.
Sadly, Alden Ehrenreich isn’t as good either. It’s still impressive that he nails all of Harrison Ford’s mannerisms but his performance is wooden at times. He still exudes charisma and a roguish nature. However, he just doesn’t have the same cool aura that Ford has.
Donald Glover is still good as Lando. However, his Lando accent still needs to be more consistent. Be that as it may, it’s fun seeing a different side to Lando Calrissian. Emilia Clarke as good as she is, she’s essentially playing Daenerys Targaryen here. Woody Harrelson brings his typical Southern roguish charm to his character. This is a must-have trait when it comes to playing Han’s mentor.
Overall, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a fun and entertaining entry into the Star Wars universe. However, multiple viewing might not provide that same type of entertainment. Is it a necessary Star Wars film? Not at all. Then again, it’s still nice to see more stories about everyone’s favorite scruffy nerf-herder.
Movie Rating: 3/5 atoms
Video
Solo: A Star Wars Story hits 4K Ultra HD with a Dolby Vision/HDR10 4K transfer and a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Because of the nature of certain scenes, the contrast will be a bit flat resulting in some washed out imagery. In addition, there are a lot of scenes where the blacks are milky blacks. However, the video transfer does feature an impressive grayscale. The inky blacks blend into the milky blacks like a gradient. Because of the impressive blacks, there is no loss of shadow details at all.
Also, the bright areas are so vivid and bright that it jumps off the screen. The same can be said about the colors too. The splashes of color throughout a scene are vibrant and pop from the screen. Since the film was originally shot in 4K, the detail clarity is sharp and crisp. The grain is barely noticeable throughout the film. Overall, it’s not the best but this is still a good transfer.
Video Rating: 4/5 atoms
Audio
Solo: A Star Wars Story hits 4K Ultra HD with a Dolby Atmos and a core 7.1 Dolby TrueHD track. The review will reflect Solo: A Star Wars Story’s core 7.1 Dolby TrueHD Master Audio track. As you can imagine from a Star Wars film, the audio mix is dynamic as it is immersive. For the most part, the music is the one thing that consistently fills the soundstage. Since each instrument blasts through each speaker individually, it feels as if an orchestra is playing live in your living room.
The sound effects dynamically, accurately, and seamlessly move through the soundstage. Not to mention, atmospheric effects adds an extra element to the mix which puts you right inside the film. Thankfully, none of these audio layers overpower the dialogue—which comes in crystal clear through the center channel. Unfortunately, the LFE is barely noticeable throughout the film. Nevertheless, this is still a fantastic audio mix.
Audio Rating: 5/5 atoms
Special Features
Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s 4K Ultra HD disc doesn’t have any special features on it. However, you can find the following special features on the Blu-ray:
- Solo: The Director & Cast Roundtable
- Kasdan on Kasdan
- Remaking the Millennium Falcon
- Escape from Corellia
- The Train Heist
- Team Chewie
- Becoming a Droid: L3-37
- Scoundrels, Droids, Creatures and Cards: Welcome to Fort Ypso
- Into the Maelstrom: The Kessel Run
- Deleted Scenes
- Proxima’s Den
- Corellian Foot Chase
- Han Solo: Imperial Cadet
- The Battle of Mimban: Extended
- Han Versus Chewie: Extended
- Snowball Fight!
- Meet Dryden: Extended
- Coaxium Double Cross
As we’ve seen from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Disney and Lucasfilm know how to put together featurettes for their Blu-ray releases. Although the featurettes here isn’t as good as The Director and The Jedi, there isn’t a lot of featurettes that are. Nevertheless, the featurettes in the Solo release is spectacular. The roundtable piece with the cast and Ron Howard is really entertaining. Their stories are just so fascinating to listen to. Not to mention, there’s a lot of chemistry between everyone at the roundtable.
“Kasdan on Kasdan” is another nice retrospective look at Lawrence Kasdan’s influence on the Star Wars saga and his influence on his son, Jonathan. Jonathan, as you may know, co-wrote Solo together with his dad. It’s a good insight into the pressures of writing a Star wars film when it’s so ingrained into your family. “Remaking the Millennium Falcon” is self-explanatory. “Falcon” takes a look at the brand new (cleaner) version of the Millennium Falcon. It plays out similarly to MTV Cribs with the way it takes from room-to-room. You also find out that there are a lot of Easter eggs spread out within the Falcon.
“Escape from Corellia” and “The Train Heist” are two behind-the-scenes featurettes provides a lot of in-depth information about these two scenes. They breakdown the influences and the difficulties of filming these two action-packed scenes. In addition, these featurettes include a lot of concept art, stunt training, and pre-visuals of the scenes. “Fort Ypso” breaks down the Fort Ypso lodge where Han and Lando meet for the very first time. Similar to “Corellia” and “Train Heist,” this featurette looks at a wide array of subjects that connect in any way to the Fort Ypso scene.
Unsurprisingly, “Team Chewie” and “L3-37” takes a look at Chewbacca and L3-37.”Chewie” goes really in-depth into Chewbacca’s role in Solo. Topics range from the different suits made for Joonas to the brand new sound design for Chewbacca’s roars. As you’ll see from this featurette and the other featurettes is that Joonas reallys loves playing Chewbacca. He definitely honors the work done by Peter Mayhew. “L3-37” looks at the development and CG-work on L3-37. Much like “Chewie,” this featurette goes in-depth and every piece of information is interesting. They breakdown this new character piece by piece.
“The Kessel Run” is an awesome look into the creation of the Kessel Run scene. What makes this featurette awesome is seeing the wrap around screen that went around the Falcon’s cockpit set. ILM created the visuals to play while filming. In other words, it’s a giant fancy Disneyland ride. Now that’s cool. The deleted scenes has a few gems in there but a majority of them would really improve on the film. The only exception is the snowball fight scene between Han and Chewie. That scene is not only cute but it’s also pretty funny too. In addition, there are some scenes that add some depth to some of the main characters.
Special Features Rating: 4/5 atoms
Overall, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a fun look at the early days of Han Solo. Is it the Star Wars spinoff we wanted? No. But it’s still nice to see Han Solo on screen one more time. Not to mention, the video, audio, and special features are all amazing. Something that we should already expect from a Lucasfilm Ultra HD release.
Overall Rating: 4/5 atoms
This Blu-ray was reviewed using a retail/advance copy/unit provided by Walt Disney Home Entertainment.
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