Review: Solo - A Star Wars Story (sixth-pass)

Solo: A Star Wars Story (sixth-pass / DBox 3D / SPOILER-FREE)
Cert: 12A / 135 mins / Dir. Ron Howard / Trailer


Previous reviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

One of the (many) joys of a new Star Wars movie is the soundtrack, and Solo is no exception. For the most part, Mr. John Powell is on scoring-duties this time around, the anthology movies falling outside of John Williams' remit as composer for the saga-episodes. And as Michael Giacchino demonstrated on the Rogue One soundtrack, this gives the standalone films a sense of their own identity at a fundamental level.

So this score is probably the one I've warmed to soonest in the modern, Disney-era of the franchise, and that includes Williams' own work for The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. With the numbered episodes, there's the mix of familiar themes and new pieces, which I found particularly jarring with TFA. TLJ fares a little better as a secondary level of callback then comes into play covering Episode VII, and the amount of new material subsides. But I also struggled with Giacchino's Rogue One for a while, as it was stylistically different from what had come before in the GFFA (as was the film). I'd had Rogue One down as a great film score in itself, just not Star Wars. Of course given time, replays both in- and outside of the movie, and the arrival of TLJ, it bedded itself in.

But on to Solo. John Williams does return briefly to the fold for track 1 here, The Adventures Of Han Solo, setting the main musical motif for the feature and finally giving Han Solo his own theme after all these years*¹. And ironically enough, Powell's arrangement and usage of Han's theme arguably makes for a more Williams-esque soundtrack than the composer's own previous two stints. There's often a sweeping, almost operatic quality than John Snr doesn't seems to want to fully return to just yet.

Powell's use of percussion drives the whole thing forward, not just embellishing the more militaristic cues but adding style (and different styles) to the set-pieces. Elsewhere, Solo reminds me of Hans Zimmer's work on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, dynamic and almost tribal in its execution. Zimmer is also evoked in the second half of track 5, Flying With Chewie (the bit where Han and the air-drying wookiee are talking on the gantry of the Imperial lander as it flies over the surface of the snowy planet Vandor). It's a refreshing change for Star Wars to be this 'casual', and I wish the score came back to it later (maybe next time). And I could be mistaken, but I'm sure I'm getting beats from Kevin Kiner's Clone Wars soundtrack in here, too. In addition to the percussion, Powell's choral cues fit in with Solo's visual aesthetic of the old-time Western.

A few 'legacy' themes from the original trilogy are referenced in the score of course, but when they appear they're relatively fleeting and entirely fitting*². That said, grumbles have been heard at Blackout Towers about the Imperial recruitment holovid which plays in the spaceport on Corellia, using a modified version of the famous Imperial March in its soundtrack. This effectively makes some of the Star Wars music canon within the Star Wars galaxy, which feels a bit odd. Then again, bear in mind that the same thing occurred in Star Wars: Rebels, so this isn't a first*³.

The only thing that's missing, from my point of view, is the synth- and guitar-based tracks which were used in the initial trailers. They hinted that the film could possibly sound very different from what had come before, but in the end these were for promotional use only. A damn shame.

So the short version is (in case you hadn't guessed), Solo has a great soundtrack. One of the smaller points I love is that after the new theme which makes up track 1, it plays out more-or-less in order of the film's story (which happens far less than you'd expect with this sort of thing). That's another little aid to letting a new score bed in, as your memory of the movie can flow in linear order as you work your way through the CD*⁴.

Much like the movie itself, John Powell's score for Solo becomes inherently Star Wars™ because it's not trying too hard to be Star Wars™, and is arguably better than it has any right to be. But the end result is what everyone was hoping for anyway, so it's all good.

Welcome to the family, Mr Powell…

The Star Wars's.



Yes.



Yes, all.



In some cases, it's entirely possible.



No, but it's a film ripe for discussion.



Apparently not.



Level 0: It is Star Wars.

…but if you wanted to go round the houses with it, Solo stars Paul Bettany, who was in 2005's Firewall with Harrison Ford from the movie Six Days Seven Nights that also featured Temuera Morrison, a major player in 1994's Once Were Warriors, as was Rena Owen who went on to star in Absolute Killers along with Ed Asner, who performed voice-work in the animated Our Friend Martin, as did Samuel L. Jackson, who starred in Avengers: Age Of Ultron with... Paul Bettany.





*¹ And while that's a lovely sentiment, we can't escape the fact that Han's new theme isn't in the four movies where the character has previously appeared. Williams hasn't reverse-engineered a previously innocuous but recurring signature for this (largely because there's no such thing in the world of Star Wars soundtracks), so his work on Solo would go some way to suggesting a musical foundation for further outings with Alden Ehrenreich's Han, even if it's appearances in other movies in the GFFA around that time, rather than outright sequels to Solo. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² Contrast this with John Williams opening The Last Jedi by ending the main theme with a slide into the 'Tatooine' flourish from A New Hope's beginning, for approximately no logical reason. The first that that's happened in eight films and no, I'm not going to let that one go. ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ Normally I'd add the caveat that the Rebels TV show garnered a substantially smaller audience exposure than one of the Star Wars cinematic movies of course, but given Solo's troublesome box office performance, I think it's best if I don't alert you to that comparison at all. Oh, hang on... ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁴ Yeah, CDs mate. Old school. ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Star Wars - The Last Jedi (fifth-pass)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (fifth-pass / D-Box 3D / SPOILERS!)
Cert: 12A / 152 mins / Dir. Rian Johnson / Trailer


Previous reviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

I heard you don't like The Last Jedi. Good.

The Jedi themselves said it from the start, 'don't get too attached to shit'. But did you listen? The lightsaber which Rey uses to help cut down the Praetorian Guards? That's the same one Anakin used to murder a room full of children. It's not good or evil, it's just an object, a tool to be used as the wielder sees fit. Obi-Wan stressed its importance to Anakin, and now Anakin's son throws it away like a fork arriving with the soup-course. He was mistaken in this action of course, and that's one of the things you didn't like; having to re-evaluate your heroes. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is about re-evaluation. And change. I heard you don't like change. Good.

Really though, you shouldn't get too attached to shit. The idea that the old-school, one-thousand-generation order are the arbiters of truth and static wisdom in a changing galaxy? Well, we know how that turned out around fifty years before the time of TLJ. The idea that you knew where a Star Wars movie was headed before seeing the BBFC/MPAA card? Well, like I said; I heard you don't like The Last Jedi. The past of the monastic order order may be a done-deal, but the future isn't. And although The Force Awakens took a safe path in bringing audiences back to the Galaxy Far, Far Away, TLJ takes the steps its forebear probably should have in not only shuffling the deck, but playing with new cards altogether. I get that you were always going to be upset by this.

And although I certainly don't want to pull rank on any section of fandom, good. While certain restrained words posted on social media hold fast and true in principal, at the same time… no. If you're going out of your way to incoherently badmouth the film on social media*¹ and sign petulant petitions, you're not a fan of Star Wars. You may well be a fan of Some Of The Star Wars Films, but you're not a fan of Star Wars. The day I walk out of a cinema and 'hate' the Star Wars movie I've just watched is the day I hang up the lightsaber*². I still won't be signing a petition.

The Last Jedi is a film about change. About passing on the baton. Kenny Baker is no longer with us as Artoo, Chewbacca is played entirely by Joonas Suotamo this time round, and Anthony Daniels' Threepio has a distinctly supporting role*³. Two of our main, central heroes have bought the farm in-universe, and the third won't be around to film the next episode. This is a story about letting go of all you've been taught, and yet trusting The Force all the same. The path is uncertain, our heroes are fallible (more on that next time). We can trust that good will prevail, but it's going to have to really try this time round...

If The Last Jedi isn't what you expected, that's fine. It's an amazing film, deep into its own entrenched franchise, which makes the audience re-evaluate why they're sitting there. Yet at the same time, this is quintessentially The Hero's Journey. It's just not the hero's journey some were expecting. Or wanting. But if you don't get goosebumps watching a kid grasping a broom-handle and gazing into a night sky full of possibility, like millions of us did when we were eight years old, then you've missed the point of Star Wars and I can't change your mind.

I heard you don't like The Last Jedi. Good.

That means I'll have less trouble booking my seat for the Solo movie in May…

+ + + + +

Oh, and the D-Box was great as always, but I was a little surprised the film was playing to fewer than 20 people. Even on the last shopping-Saturday before Christmas, in a location which isn't exactly a 'pass-through' (the O2 arena), and in the earliest screening of the day. Still, no matter.



The Star Wars.



Yes.



Yes.



It's strong.
It's very strong.



That all depends on how wrong you are.



There is.



Level 0: It is Star Wars.





*¹ Start a blog, write a review. Write several reviews. Of the same film if needs be, or of different films. Share your reviews on social media, by all means. You want to hate what you've watched? Fantastic, just think about exactly why you hated it. That makes you examine your opinions on movies a lot more closely, trust me. No matter how concentrated your rage, I assure you that 140 characters isn't enough to adequately express it, and a signature on a petition (for which you will be widely and justifiably mocked) certainly isn't. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² I seem to come out of every first-pass of a Star Wars film unsure, whether I've indulged in spoilers or not. That's not that I don't love what I've just witnessed, just that I can't process everything in one sitting. It's only my ridiculous, self imposed blog-rules that dictate I type up a review for every separate showing I see. ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ And start bracing yourselves now because there's a distinct probability that next May's Solo movie may well be the first branded*⁴ Star Wars movie without an appearance by R2-D2 and C-3PO. I mean, Rogue One was pushing it, frankly. How small do they want us to think the galaxy is..? ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁴ The two Ewoks movies are a curiosity of course, as they were Lucasfilm-made (and clearly set on the same Endor as Return of the Jedi) but didn't feature the actual Star Wars branding until the 2005 DVD release, despite characters appearing in official encyclopaedia-type references until the 2012 'Legends' reboot. ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.