SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
Director: Ron Howard
Cert: 12A, 135 mins
The Han Solo prequel, by contrast to the more epic, visually stylish Star Wars films, is more of a film noir, with a muted colour palette and morally ambiguous characters.
The film is concerned with questions of what constitutes freedom, and how to achieve it.
Han (Alden Ehrenreich) and Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) grow up in the Corellian underworld, where characters exert power over others, everything is about earning people’s favour, and failure brings punishment. They yearn to get their own ship and explore the galaxy in freedom, but however far they go, can they escape this insidious culture of control?
True freedom
Along the way, Han meets his trusty Wookiee friend Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), a mentor figure Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), and others, including the suave smuggler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) and his opinionated droid pilot L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) as they have adventures on board the Millenium Falcon.
They undertake various heists as they seek to evade the displeasure of the refined yet chilling Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany) and a sinister organisation known as Red Dawn.
As Christians, we can take comfort and rejoice in the fact that true freedom, life to the full, ultimate security, and the triumph of good over evil, are all found in Jesus Christ (c.f. Galatians 5.1, John 10.10, Romans 8.37-39, Colossians 2.15).
The film contains occasional bad language and some violence.
