*Caution Spoilers ahead *
Solo - a Star wars story, released on the Memorial Day Weekend.
The blockbuster has all the elements of a great flick. An origin story for the likable interstellar rogue smuggler with an eight foot alien Sasquatch as a sidekick and a brunette mother of dragons as the love interest. Not to mention Woody Harrelson playing good cop, bald cop with hair at the same time. But I left the theater unsettled. Wonderful cinematography. Great effects. Likable characters. Lots of space chases and we finally see why the Kessel run was such a big deal.
But still I walked away from the film with a "meh!"
Bloggers poked holes in the plot points. Some didn't like the deaths of minor characters. But the real issue for me was around key areas of story.
As a writer, there's a few things cast in stone.
One: Your main character needs a goal and the author makes it as stepping-on-lego-in-bare-feet difficult as they can. Readers love the struggle and the inevitable almost failure in obtaining said goal until finally the character reaches it or decides at the last minute it wasn't worth it. Think love of the girl. Arc of the covenant. Holy of the grail.
Two: Unless your name is Jack Reacher, you need a character arc. Solo fails on both parts.
In the first scene, Han steals from a rival gang and declares to his girlfriend he's going to become the best pilot in the galaxy. But in the next scene, he pilots a speeder well enough for him and his girlfriend to elude capture. Looked to me that he'd already gotten close to his goal without any struggle or training required.
After he's separated from his girlfriend, he joins forces with Woody Harrelson's gang. After a few close calls (of thieving), Woody tells him "Once you do this, there's no going back" But the first scene had already established him as a criminal.
In Act II, he takes the controls of the Millennium Falcon and pilots like he's done it from birth. He's reached his pilot goal but without a struggle. Kind of like your kid really wanting an XBOX and then you give it to him without him needing to cut the grass all summer or getting straight A's all year. The goal is hollow. I felt the same with Solo's goal of becoming a pilot.
During the rest of the movie, Solo's goals were 'squishy'. When he was separated from his girlfriend, he said in a tearful dialog "I'll be back" but never did. In Act II, he arrives at a bar and she's there - now part of the other criminal organization. Boom! Goal accomplished. No struggle.
My final issue was character development and arc. I liked the actor playing Solo, but he never changed from beginning to end. Thieving nice guy in the first scene to do-the-right-thing nice guy thief at the end. No major learning. Even when he was double crossed, still no real change.
In the 1977 Star Wars movie, you saw Solo as the rogue pilot that was in it for the money and resisted helping Luke and all, fight the empire. During the film, you saw Han change and do things because it was right. This version, not so much.
Yes, Solo did help the marauders get their magic rocket fuel, but I felt he'd do that anyway without any external pressure, because he was the "nice" guy.
But in a prequel before-he-was-Han movie, I was expecting a little more before and after, instead of the constant likeable rogue pilot that made the kessel run in less than twelve parsecs.