Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau, Linda Hunt, Joonas Suotamo, Ian Kenny, Anthony Daniels, John Tui, Warwick Davis, Erin Kellyman, Ray Park.

It is perhaps impossible to capture the essence of what makes a screen legend in a particularly iconic role; the one in which they not only ran with across four different films in a much-loved film series, but to whom in many ways was the absolute star, the one to whom the kids loved and the one that others admired. To try and do so would be reckless folly, and yet every hero needs their backstory told, every past needs to be explored and that of Han Solo is no exception.

If it is agreed that this premise needs to take place, to add more meat to the bones of the Star Wars Franchise or even just to fill a void between two epics coming to a cinema in a town very, very close to you, then it should be considered a choice made and to which the fans will automatically flock; no one would blame them if they swerved Solo: A Star Wars Story, but then nobody can blame them if they give way to their own curiosity and almost pet love desires.

There is no doubting that Alden Ehrenreich is a very fine actor, his past credits serve him well, and if Harrison Ford’s psychological hold over the fandom and pop-culture grasp of Han Solo wasn’t so deeply entrenched, it would be argued that he took the character out and gave it a clean bill of health; the trouble is Harrison Ford, as he has been with so many roles, from Indiana Jones and on to Jack Ryan and even Rick Deckard and Dr. Richard Kimble, is simply too overwhelming an actor, too much of a symbol of cinema, that no matter how good Mr. Ehrenreich is, he will never compare favourably to the man who came first in the role.

Aside from the plainly obvious, and without doing disservice to Alden Ehrenreich, the expected foil and danger comes from all angles. “Trust nobody”, warns Woody Harrelson’s Becket, and yet in Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, who does fill the shoes of Lando Calrissian with panache, Phoebe Waller-Bridge who gives the character of the robotic L3-37 some of the greatest lines during the whole experience and Thandie Newton as Val, the supporting cast does marvellously to keep the film going, to lay out the path for the younger, less grizzled and suspecting Han to thrive.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is a good tale, one that that unfortunately suffers from the inevitable comparisons to the past, a state of mind that should not be, but one that does begrudgingly happen.

Ian D. Hall