Long, long time ago in a distant galaxy
“Latvia 1” proved to be a very successful experiment. Not only on a feature level, it also offers a completely unexpected ending that breaks the taboo of Star Wars. Above all, it was a differently depicted Galaxy whose image broke out from outside the rigid frames of Jedi and Sith. We have seen this world from a point of view that is much closer to us, without the philosophical and existential choices associated with omnipotent power. “Han Solo” is moving in the same direction, moving even further. I was very surprised to see the assaulters in just a few scenes (pay attention to the soundtrack during the propaganda displayed on the screens), and Rebelia is more of a dream than a reality. Yes, “Han Solo” happens even before “Latvia 1” and this is definitely a good thing for this film. The main character is not connected in any way with any later events and thanks to that you can look at him in a different way. Anyway, in the Galaxy performance itself, the gates open, which had previously been only repealed in Star Wars’ films.
I am thinking mainly of the various criminal syndicates that have dominated this film. For fans of games, books or comics it’s nothing new, but when you know Star Wars only from movies, you can see that the whole world is alive and well beyond the dominance of the Empire and crawling Rebelia. It was shown quite well in this film, and we should be applauded for that. Practically all the time we see on the screen various criminals and mercenaries. Only a true racial group of head hunters is missing, but maybe there is still time for this. Greater Verizona is also due for the appearance of a non-human-dominated galaxy. Until now, it was people who most often showed up on the screen. In “Hana Solo” there is a lot revolving around aliens, and even if the group of main characters does not have too many, you can see that the galaxy is much more diverse.
My name is Solo. Han Solo
The figures of the main antagonist do not need to be presented to anyone. Harrison Ford’s daring performance is part of the canon of pop culture and there is no exaggeration that this hero is the most charismatic (right next to Darth Vader) of the Original Trilogy. Interestingly, Ford himself does not like Hana Solo very much and he supposedly wanted Lucas to kill his hero during the “Back of Eating” shooting and give him an even bigger emotional dimension. Who knows if this was one of Ford’s conditions during the negotiations to return to Solo’s role in “Awakening the Power”, because as we know, this cult figure died there.
Facing such a legendary hero must be a huge challenge for an actor who wants to reinterpret him. This is a slightly different situation than with, for example, James Bond or Batman, because in these cases the rotation of actors always took place and thanks to this either the history of the character was reset, or the links between the different “versions” were marginal. In the case of Hana Solo, in the pop culture consciousness, he always had the face of Harrison Ford. In addition, the way in which he plays the actor is very specific: he does not recreate the character, he becomes a hijacking swindler with a good heart – the same procedure is repeated in Indiana by Jones, who differs from Hana Solo only in his whip and hat.
Alden Ehrenreich was therefore faced with a challenge. Did he manage to do it? In my opinion, anyway, it depends on how we approach this film. If we want a perfect copy of Ford’s game, only a part of the scenes is able to reproduce these characteristic behaviors quite faithfully. Ehrenreich himself is, in my opinion, very schizophrenic in this picture. I saw in him alternately a self-confident, loose, horsetish Solo and a boy, who apologized with his gaze for playing. Sabbath scenes are definitely the best in this production. At these moments, the characters Solo and Lando are so perfectly captured that it was not possible to do it better. Not only the characters’ behavior, but also the dialogues were perfectly matched. But immediately afterwards I see the same actor in a scene where he seems incredibly tense and loses all his charisma. Theoretically, I should not have a problem with this – the film is set about 10 years before the New Hope, so it’s normal for a young Han not to behave the same as his older version. The problem, however, is the charisma itself, which one either has or does not have. Han Solo definitely had it, Alden Ehrenreich not necessarily anymore. Anyway, there must be something about it, that in the first herald of the production the character of the main character appears… only for about 10 seconds.
However, apart from the question of following Harrison Ford, Ehrenreich himself did not play badly. I didn’t have much problems with accepting his character or liking him. His version of Solo is a yellow-eyed, sometimes even frightened and strongly improvising one, and in this version it falls quite decent.