What makes a main character the hero has nothing to do with how much screen time they have or simply having their name on the front cover in bold letters. The hero needs to be prioritized. How? By doing everything “Solo: A Star Wars Story” didn’t. I had no love for this movie when it first came out, and I thought it was because I had my expectations set way too high, being an avid Star Wars fan. But no, now I know why it was so bad—one of the bigger reasons, anyway. It’s a bummer too. The movie started out fine, but at the forty-five minute mark, everything went downhill. I’ll explain, but first some setup.
It started well enough…
Immediately, the movie shows us the hero of the story, Han Solo, a resourceful smuggler who gets into trouble constantly. In the first five minutes, we see Han use his skills to steal one of the thieves’ speeders and fly back to his hideout. This is where we meet the first of many side characters, Qira, Han’s girlfriend. Han tells her the deal went south, but he snagged one vial of hyper fuel before the thieves took it all. Now they can take the vial and bribe a guard to escape the planet.
Unfortunately, Han is caught before they can implement their crazy plan. Thugs takes Han to Proxima, the one who hired Han to sell the hyper fuel. We learn more about Han’s character as he tries to talk his way out of being punished. First, he tries to lie to Proxima but fails at that. When Proxima asks if he came back with anything, Han responds, “I ran away with my life—that’s gotta mean something. It does to me anyway.” Han’s character flaw is caring only about his life, and the movie establishes this fairly well in this scene.
The movie makes us care a little more about Qira when she jumps in, grabbing the pistol and begging Proxima for a second chance. Proxima reminds Qira that her people had rescued her from a bad place and that she’s throwing her life away for scum like Han. Normally, I would want a lot more than one paragraph of backstory about an important character like Qira, but I was content with the movie focusing most on the hero.
Han pretends he has a thermal detonator, and when that doesn’t trick Proxima, he chucks it at a window. Being creatures of the dark, the light sears the Proxima and her goons, giving Han and Qira a chance to escape. This shows more of Han’s resourcefulness and bravery. With good pacing and taking their time, I found myself a little tense as Han and Qira were chased to the gates. The couple talk about their dreams as they try to sneak through the line. The gatekeeper takes the bribe, but just as Han steps through the gate, Qira is grabbed from behind by the bad guys. Han watches helplessly as his girlfriend is dragged away, and I couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy. Because of the character’s being nicely established in the first scenes, I felt for them—more so Han than Qira—since he is the hero of the story. So far, the movie did a good job, showing us who the hero is and why we should root for him.
We see Han hide and scamper to get off Corellia, but to no avail; the stormtroopers are after him. Seeing no other option, he signs up to be a pilot for the empire to get off planet. This shows Han’s drive and willingness to sacrifice everything, even his own ideals, to save his own skin. Earlier, when Han and Qira talked, they both said they would go wherever the empire wasn’t. So it was a fantastic call the writers made to make Han enroll for the enemy, because it reminded me of his desires but also his flaws.
“Three years later…” You have GOT to be kidding me!?
Yep, those stupid words pop up saying three years have gone by. Ok, movie, you set up a great way to see Han join the empire and we get to see NONE of it? I wouldn’t care as much, but you even established Han’s unwillingness to obey orders and his distaste for imperials. Talk about a great setup with a fart of a payoff! *Hyperventilating* Fine, I’m fine. What was I talking about? Oh right, three years later…
Solo is in the middle of a battle, fighting for the empire. He meets some smugglers, dressed as imperials: Captain Beckett, Val, and Rio. After the battle, Han begs them to let him fly away with them. Instead of saying yes, they out him as a deserter. Stormtroopers throw him into a pit that has a monster in it. Come to find out, the monster is a large, hungry Wookie named Chewbacca. Han is able to convince Chewbacca not to eat him by speaking his language. Because Qira is no longer in the picture, I’m happy they are bringing in this new side character to team up with the hero. Han finally convinces Chewbacca to escape, and the smugglers rescue them before they leave the planet.
On the ship, Chewbacca and Han bond a little. I liked how the writers didn’t make Han and Chewbacca buddies immediately, because it’s more funny to watch the A and B characters at odds than always agreeing. Conflict in the story is King. So knowing those two would argue through the rest of the movie, promised some entertaining scenes…little did I know my hope would be crushed once more.
We are more introduced to the smugglers. Beckett is the captain who’s letting Han stay onboard. Val is his wife, who’s super untrusting of Han—or really anyone, and Rio is the light-hearted alien who cracks jokes. They talk about a plan to steal enough hyper fuel to pay off their debts, but the plan goes awry when rival pirates come in for the container.
During the ambush by the rivals, Rio is shot, and Han takes over flying the ship, giving Han a hero moment. Buuuut it’s a small one because of how it was shot and scripted—unfortunate to say the LEAST. Rio dies from his wound, and Val sacrifices herself to save them. This is kind of why I didn’t mind that Val and Rio had small introductions, since they wouldn’t be alive long enough for me to care. Which is fine, honestly. You don’t want to have too many characters overshadowing your hero. Pause for a moment of irony…..OK, moving on.
Useless character #1 – Qira
Han, Beckett, and Chewbacca visit Beckett’s boss, Drydan Voss—the one who hired Beckett’s crew to steal the hyper fuel they weren’t able to get. While they wait to meet Drydan on his cruise ship, Han wanders around until someone familiar touches his arm—his girlfriend, Qira. *Groan* Ok, let me get this straight. Han’s entire desire is to get Qira off the planet of Correllia so they can be free together. But now, that motivation has been launched into space—along with my hope for this movie. It’s only a quarter way through the movie, and the movie has already solved Han’s goal.
This is the first time in the movie where the writers make the dreaded mistake of mixing up their priorities. Instead of focusing on Han and his already-established buddies, the writers add Qira back in. Why? I think they wanted to change things up, and what better way to do that than putting in a twist! I’m kidding. Twists are only good if you set them up well—which the writers didn’t do. Or a twist can work if it affects the hero’s story. Oh, it affected his story alright, in the worst way—by taking out his whole motivation. Now instead of having this heroic mission to save his girl, he’s just another gambler trying to pay off his dept while not being murdered by Drydan.
Drydan is a ruthless villain who has no qualms about killing anyone, seeing as he is a leader in the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate. Beckett and Han try to convince Dryden not to kill them for failing the mission. Qira speaks up for them, because she’s Dryden’s lieutenant. They convince Dryden to give them enough time to steal more hyper fuel and he says yes. So now Han, Chewbacca, Beckett, and—surprise—Qira are ordered to fly to Kessel and steal un-refined hyper fuel. I’m all for a kick-butt woman joining the team, but not when the writers shoe-horn said character in.
Whenever you make a side character, they should affect the main character, not just plot-wise, but also theme wise. What is Han’s flaw and desire, and how do the side characters help or hinder him in this? Beckett’s character works, because his flaw rubs off on Han, and we need that since Han is supposed to have a falling arch in the story. Chewbacca’s character COULD have helped Han see the good in helping people. He could have been Han’s moral compass, but adding in Qira shoved Chewbacca to the sidelines.
Useless character #2 – Lando
To accomplish their new mission, they need an incredibly fast ship, and Qira knows who to get it from. Han plays a card game called Sabacc, with Lando Calrissian, the owner of the Millennium Falcon. This scene was fun to watch, not only because of the fun banter, but because of the actor who played Lando. He did a good job portraying the lovable Lando from the original movies. The scene was going great until Han loses the game. Now Lando still owns the Falcon and is hired to fly them to Kessel. Ohhhh great…another side character added onto the pile.
Don’t kill me, Lando fans. I LOVE Lando and like I said; he is portrayed great in the sabacc game. But he’s just not needed for the rest of the movie. “But, Megan,” you defend. “Lando owns the ship, and he won, not Han.” *Sigh* I FIX—Han wins the game, gets the falcon just like he’s supposed to. Tada! Honestly, I think the only reason the writers put Lando in the rest of the movie is because of his silly droid and their relationship.
Useless character #3 – L3
L3, Lando’s droid, is not my favorite for multiple reasons, but I’ll give you my top reason. She doesn’t need to be there, and it adds absolutely nothing to the story. In fact, it takes away from it. This robot’s goal is to speak up and fight for other droids like it. They show this when she tries to persuade droid gladiators to stop fighting and serving its human master. Even though I think that droids having free will is silly, this story could be fine in another movie. But this L3’s ideals and story doesn’t add to our hero’s story one bit. It’s like the writers had no clue what to focus on after they killed Han’s first motivation, so they just added another side character to fill in the sad, sad void.
Hope comes and then L3 kills it.
Han tries to make out with Qira, but Beckett takes Han away to “work on some things”. Beckett tells Han that they can be a good team, but not with Qira on that team. He doesn’t trust her. When Han questions him, Beckett says an excellent line that establishes his own flaw: “Trust no one and you’ll never be disappointed.” I applaud the writers for using Beckett and Qira to prioritize the HERO’S story and character arch. Finally, they are getting back to prioritizing the crucial things. But I spoke too soon, as the next scene made me want to throw up.
Qira and the robot have a scene which—again—doesn’t need to exist. Don’t even get me started on the droids delusional fantasies of a human loving it sexually. It was an uncomfortable and an unneeded scene that could have been tossed to make room for better scenes, like actually showing Han in the naval academy, or showing us more of Qira’s and Han’s relationship at the beginning of the movie. But no, we get a droid with attitude problems talking about relationship problems. This scene should have been cut, no question. But hey, doesn’t Disney love to make us uncomfortable these days?
L3 steals Chewbacca’s moment and then Han’s moment.
When Han’s crew finally makes it to Kessel, they trick their way into the base. Han and Chewbacca go to get the fuel, while Beckett, Qira, and L3 hold the control center. Because of L3’s desire to liberate all droids, she frees every droid she sees and they cause a distraction by hitting ALL the buttons in the control room. This is cool except they could have done this by just having L3, or anyone else smashing buttons. But no, the movie pushes the “liberating droids” thing again. Droids live matter? Really, Disney, that’s the important message you want to shout at the world right now?! *Sigh* If it was humans, I’d be all for it, but this is just sad. And because of this waste of a scene, we barely get enough time with Chewbacca liberating the LIVING…you know, his whole character goal. Yeah, we get more passion put into a droid’s ideals than a living character’s ideals.
L3 gets destroyed during the fight to escape Kessell’s base—I clapped with joy—and Lando gets injured rescuing it. Because of Lando’s injury, Han is FINALLY allowed to fly the Falcon. At first Qira tries to be co-pilot, but it turns out Chewbacca has a talent for flying too—go figure. It would have been nice to know WHY Chewbacca knows how, but instead we have to sit through Lando begging his droid not to die in his arms. It’s a glorified Alexa, Lando. Repair it and get over it.
With some fancy flying, they get through the Kessel run. I liked this scene, because they finally let the main character be awesome. Han earns his hero status, and you can’t help but root for him. It’s cool to see Beckett rock the gunners seat too. They even do this cool thing where they shoot a little bit of hyper fuel into the ship’s hyper drive to escape a gravity well.
Unfortunately, L3 comes back into play. Apparently, they need her brain to guide them through the storm. I despised this. Why in heaven and earth would you take away the main character’s moment and give it to a DROID? Han should win with the help of Chewbacca and Beckett, not some no-nothing droid with delusions of purpose.
So now, L3 is part of the ship—goodie for it. With it and everyone else’s help, they get through without blowing up. They get to the planet to refine the hyper fuel and run into Beckett’s rival gang of pirates from earlier. Beckett tells Han not to trust them, but he does anyway. The leader of the rivals ends up being a good guy who’s trying to take down the crime syndicates. They ask Han for the refined fuel, and he agrees. They plan on conning Dryden with fake fuel to not get killed—quite the risky plan.
Useless character #4 – The rival gang
So now we are seeing Han for the first time, make a decision that is purely for idealistic reasons, even to the risk of his life and Qira’s life. But I found myself asking…why? What made Han change? The whole reason the lowest point moment exists in a story is because it gets our hero to their knees—usually by their own foolish or selfish decisions. This provides contrast and depth. Without this beat, we feel like Han changed for no reason. Also, Han is supposed to have a falling arc here, but again the writers wanted to add in another twist with the rival pirates being good guys. Usually, I would like this twist for multiple reasons, but in THIS movie with Han’s specific falling arch and story, it doesn’t work. The writers continue to flounder with the story, and Han fades from hero-ship to a cool person in a sea of other meh people.
After Han makes a deal with the good guys pirates, Beckett takes his leave to run away and find a retirement home. Lando flies away. Han, Chewbacca, and Qira deliver Dryden the fake fuel, but the villain immediately knows it’s a fake. Drydan says he had an informant planted in Han’s crew, and we are shocked to find out it’s Beckett. I’ll give the writers credit on this one. They fooled me. And it was a good twist because they set up his character to be a bad guy. He literally says to Han, “Don’t trust anyone.” This worked fantastically because unlike SOME characters I disliked, Beckett’s story and flaw works perfectly with our hero’s story and flaw.
Qira’s turn to steal the moment from Han.
So now I’m excited thinking, “Ok great! The movie is finally getting back on track. Han’s failed and been betrayed. He’s gonna complete his falling arch now!” Nooooope. Han smiles, saying he knew not to trust Beckett. Do we get a smidgen of foreshadowing for this? No. The pirates ambush Drydan’s men and take them down. Han’s group fights each other until Drydan is killed by Han—er Qira. Han barely gets to have any hero moments in his own movie, so why not just have Qira kill the main bad guy while Han gets slapped around? PERFECT! *severe eye roll*
Han leaves Qira to…*groan*…to take over the crime syndicate and chat it up with Darth-flipping-Maul. I get that this was like a nod to the clone wars series, and they are trying to give Qira more cool layers, but they shouldn’t have. Why, you ask me? Because Han barely had enough time in this movie to have his own cool layers and he’s the flippin HERO. I just wanted to scream at the screen, “Writers, your focus needs more FOCUS!” Anwhooo where was I? Oh yes…
Not really a falling arc…or really any arc.
Han has one slight hero moment where he catches up with Beckett and kills him to save Chewbacca and his own skin. Beckett tells him he did the right thing, and that he needs to continue to not trust anyone. Han seems to agree, thus completing his fall arch—but wait, hold on. You find out that Han gives ALL the hyper fuel to the rival pirates out of the goodness of his heart. He doesn’t take enough to—I don’t know—pay off his debts or buy a planet of his own. So is it really a falling arch? Barely. The writers woosed out, not wanting to make Han that much of a bad guy at the end. It made for a lack-luster end to this kind of film.
This is why you MUST prioritize the hero and their story first. The main reason this movie didn’t succeed was the writers were floundering, bouncing from one character to the next, highlighting many different stories. This is fine when all the side character stories work in tandem with our hero—like Beckett’s did—but most of the characters didn’t do that. So now we are left with a pathetic excuse for a Han Solo origin story. You see—those of you who watched the original trilogy—it was crucial for Han to have a well-established falling arch in this movie, because when we first meet Han in “A New Hope” he is not a good guy. He is a selfish, apathetic anti-hero who only cares about him and maybe Chewbacca.
Speaking of Chewbacca, let me say that the writers slacked off completely with his character. I mean, they gave more attention and passion to L3’s droid rights movement than Chewbacca’s moment when he rescued LIVING slaves at Kessel. So let’s recap. L3 took away Chewbacca’s thunder, Qira took away Han’s motivation, and the rival pirates took away his falling arch and made it into a “eh” arc. Not cool, movie…not cool. When we prioritize our hero and their goal, theme, and arc, the audience is pleased. When the side characters in the story ADD or impact the hero’s theme and arch, the audience is pleased. When a stinkin robot comes and hijacks the main heros and his buddies’ awesomeness, the audience wants to chuck popcorn at the screen.
So, I’m curious if I’m the only one who felt so…frustrated with this movie. Tell me below why you think Solo did or didn’t work. Any of you Star Wars fans out there—do you think they did Han, Chewbacca, and Lando justice in this movie?
