Solo premiered last night, and early critical reaction is good
Last night, Solo: A Star Wars Story premiered for the first time in Los Angeles to an audience of fans, critics, and people related to the second unit director, all waiting to see if Ron Howard was able to successfully salvage the troubled production. Early (spoiler-free) social media reactions are in, and Howard will be happy.
Across the board, people seem to be reacting quite positively to the film. Admittedly, first-response posts tend to skew exaggeratedly high, buteven after taking that into account, Solo is winning over critics to a large degree. Sure, you’ve got a few hot takes that seem a little too good to be true, simply because they’re so overwhelmingly enthusiastic. It doesn’t mean they’re wrong, just that they tend to trigger suspicion, the way any it’s-all-great-and-no-problems reaction often does:
But even the people who are more measured in their responses were clearly fans of the film. Here’s some of the critics who saw the movie and could certainly pick out some issues, but nevertheless feel it’s a solidly entertaining entry in the Star Wars canon. Note a few folks calling out problems with the first act:
Certain elements seem to be generating more favorable opinions than others. In particular, Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s droid get singled out multiple times, as a few of the above reactions have already demonstrated. But hearing the action choreography get praised is also reassuring—anyone who’s seen Howard’s In The Heart Of The Sea knows he’s upped his game in recent years when it comes to action sequences.
But for skeptics among you who doubt the opinions of those who just walked out of a Hollywood premiere for a massive franchise blockbuster, don’t worry, there’s a couple of contrarians available to keep your expectations from getting too high:
While this is all promising, there’s a very important issue that none of these people address, and it’s obviously going to be the make-or-break issue for Solo: A Star Wars Story: Does Chewbacca get to fuck that other Wookiee?