Solo: A Star Wars Story: Trailer Highlights

As the main Star Wars trilogy continues on with Episode IX in 2019, this year our Star Wars fix comes in the shape of Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018, Ron Howard). A film focusing on the early days of Harrison Ford's iconic role, Han Solo. This film has been plagued with doubt for quite a while, from the concerning casting of Alden Ehrenreich (Hail Caesar, Rules Don't Apply) to the firing of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) halfway through production. Yes, Star Wars fans hold with bated breath to see how this film turns out. But for now, we have had the first trailer released, hopefully giving fans some insight into the state of the film.

First Thoughts

Yeah, this trailer's okay. Which is good, because even I was concerned about how this film was going to look! So 'Okay' is a good result so far. It sports some interesting visuals, some decent action and a pretty good cast. My only concern is that it seems to try and hide Alden Ehrenreich as much as possible. Obviously, they have to show him, but he doesn't really seem to get a lot of screen time in this.

1. Chase Scene

The trailer kicks off with a chase scene with Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and Qi'Ra (Emilia Clarke) driving away from an imperial officer. These clips are alright. Han gets to show off some piloting skills, there's a voiceover of Han explaining why he's the way he is: Life of crime, kicked out of the Flight Academy. My problem with it is that it feels like stuff we've already seen before in Star Wars. Reminds me a little bit of the dogfight on Jakku in The Force Awakens (2015, J.J Abrams) and the fight on Jeddha in Rogue One (2016, Gareth Edwards). Kinda wish they gave it some kinda distinct style.

2. The Millenium Falcon

Holy crap! The Falcon is so damn clean! Either Han Solo just doesn't take care of his ship's interior or the Falcon gets super wrecked in this film that it needs a serious makeover! I have a feeling that the Falcon is just fresh off the assembly line and it's gonna take a serious beating (What Han does with the ship at the end of the trailer is a good example of this). But it's really interesting to see the Falcon differently. I'd be interested to see what happens to it in the end.

3. Lando

Donald Glover (Community, Atlanta) is playing everyone's favourite suave con-artist Lando Calrissian. Glover looks quite good in the role. And he definitely looks like he's enjoying it. I was a little worried that I would only see Troy from Community when I saw Glover in this film (I'm a big Community fan!) but luckily that turned to not be the case. This is Lando before Empire Strikes Back (1980, Irvin Kershner) so he's a lot more sleazy and untrusting at this point in his life. I can't wait to see what both Glover and Ron Howard have in store for us with this character!

4. Han Solo

As I said before, this trailer feels like it's holding back on showing Han Solo, almost like Disney is embarrassed by him. Which is disappointing but I can understand why. Alden Ehrenreich seems to be quite good in this role. He, like Glover, looks like he's enjoying himself and he's got that cocky, chip-on-the-shoulder personality that you'd expect from Han Solo. The only problem is that he doesn't seem to have hit the same level as Harrison Ford (Star Wars, Air Force One), and so this doesn't truly feel like Han Solo, which is sad. But, to be fair, it's not really Ehrenreich's fault. The fact is no one can replace Harrison Ford. Hollywood has tried many times to find the new Harrison Ford and has always come up short. Good examples would be Brendan Fraser in The Mummy movies or Nathan Fillion in Firefly. Good performances but could never hit the same level as Harrison Ford. So I'm probably gonna enjoy Ehrenreich's performance for it is. Even if he doesn't truly hit the mark.

5. The Dogfight

The trailer ends with Han Solo flying the Millenium Falcon away from an Imperial Star Destroyer and a few older model TIE Fighters. Now, I like this for a number of reasons. First, it's a different setting for a Star Wars dogfight, with the lightning storm, so I'm happy to see that. Second, Han gets to show off some more impressive pilot tricks, by knocking a Fighter into some debris using a very flashy trick. Something that's very Han Solo! And third, it features some giant, electric squid creature. So I'm really interested to see how the gang gets out of that!

Conclusion

Yeah, this trailer's alright. It shows some pretty good stuff. Like Donald Glover's Lando and the final bit with the dogfight in the storm. And Alden Ehrenreich seems to be doing a good job as Han Solo. It's not Harrison Ford, but he's still doing a good job. But there are some parts in this that feel like they were taken more from previous Star Wars films and don't really have their own distinct style. Which is a bit disappointing. But this film does look good, and I'm a lot more eager to see it!

So that's my thoughts on the first trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story. What did you think of the trailer? Do you disagree with any of my points? If so then please leave a comment down below. And, if you liked what you read then please follow this blog for more content. Thank you for reading. :)