Did we need a standalone Han Solo movie in the Star
Wars universe? No, no we didn’t. But no one asked me, and in the
grand scheme of things, unnecessary as it is, we could have done much worse
than Solo: A Star Wars Story. Granted, we also could have done
much better. It’s a wildly mixed bag, but with the utter chaos behind the
scenes—the ousting of directors Chris Lord and Phil Miller 2/3 of the way
through production, the recasting, the rewrites, the reshoots—worse was always
on the table as a very real possibility.
When Lucasfilm first announced the Star WarsStory movies, I was down with the idea of standalone films that
examine heretofore unexplored corners of that far, far away galaxy. There’s so
much room to move and so many stories to tell, not just the tale of the
Skywalker clan, their crew, and the Jedi. I’m not as into the idea of using
them to rehash characters we already know (I sure as hell don’t want a Boba
Fett movie). But despite what I want, we’re getting Solo: A Star Wars
Story next month. And there’s another new trailer.
Any time Joel and Ethan Coen make a movie, it’s going to be
an event that captures my attention, and such is case with Hail, Caesar!. A bouncy, energetic dalliance into the Hollywood studio
system of the 1950s, this is a well-meaning romp full of whip-cracking dialogue
that only the Coens can pull off, homages to the classic genres of yesteryear,
and quirky characters that would become stilted in the hands of any other
filmmakers.
