Finding the Unexpected in Solo: A Star Wars Story
Opening weekend, I saw Solo: A Star Wars Story twice. This wasn’t something I expected to do. Like many, I expected to be underwhelmed by a movie about young Han Solo. We all know the narrative: it’s an “unnecessary” film – a cash grab by money-hungry Disney dead-set on pimping out a galaxy far, far away until we all scream like a Wookie. The evidence stacked up against it. Solo is a film no one asked for starring an unknown with a nigh-unpronounceable name (Alden Ehrenreich) that suffered from well-publicized behind-the-scenes problems resulting in a complete midcourse change-up of the creative team. It was expected to be dead-on-arrival. Of course, I was going to see it… eventually. I’m an 80s kid who grew up playing with Star Wars action figures and swinging my mother’s dowel rods around like a lightsaber, breaking anything in reach. Complain as I might, seeing the movie was a foregone conclusion. At best, I assumed, Solo couldn’t disappoint me any worse than what I f