SOLO : A STAR WARS STORY - Tuesday 29th May 2018.

'SOLO : A STAR WARS STORY' which I saw earlier this week is described as a 'Space Western' and is the second film in the Star Wars standalone anthology series which follows on the heels of 'Rogue One : A Star Wars Story' released in 2016 and is set prior to the events in 'A New Hope'. That first standalone instalment was Directed by Gareth Edwards and took in excess of US$1B at the global Box Office off the back of a US$200M Budget outlay. This film Premiered in Los Angeles on 10th May, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival on 15th May and saw its US release last week too. Filming began in January 2017 under the Directing leadership of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and after almost five months of principle photography the pair were fired from the set due to creative differences. They were replaced by Ron Howard who completed the last four weeks or so of principle photography and about another five weeks of reshoots. Lord and Miller are credited as Executive Producers. Made for a reported US$250M, early Reviews have indicated generally positive press, but a fairly lacklustre Box Office take so far of US$198M.

This film, as the name implies, centres on a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) whom we first encounter on the heavy industry planet Corellia, where he and his girlfriend Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke) are being chased down by a bunch of underworld criminal types. Using his expert driving skills, Han and passenger Qi'ra manage to evade those in hot pursuit, and wanting to get off that Godforsaken planet they bribe an Imperial Officer at the airport with a small but extremely powerful and very valuable sample of Coaxium - a hyperspace fuel. Passing through screening having accepted the bribe, the two are momentarily separated causing Qi'ra to be captured on the wrong side of the departure terminal while Han has secured safe passage outta Dodge on the other. As Qi'ra is carted off, Han vows to return for her. He quickly signs up as a flight cadet in the Imperial Navy. The recruiting officer asks him which family is he from, to which Han replies he has no family, he's alone. The officer takes a few brief seconds and calls him 'solo'! From this early introduction and piecing together the approximate timeline, it is safe to assume that this film is set somewhere between 15 and 20 years before the events of 'A New Hope'.

Fast forward three years and Han is serving as an lowly canon fodder infantryman during a battle on Mimban where he happens upon a small but well organised group of criminals masquerading as Imperial Soldiers, led by one Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and his wife Val (Thandie Newton). Han was discharged from the Imperial Navy flight school for gross insubordination in then intervening years. Han tries to wrangle his way into Beckett's gang but instead winds up getting arrested and thrown into a muddy pit to meet his fate at the hands of a marauding beast, who turns out to be a Wookie, named Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo). Fortunately Han is able to speak limited Wookie and is able to communicate with the woolly beast, persuading him to join forces to effect their escape. This they do, as Beckett is about to take off, but comes back for the pair of escapees recognising that extra hands on deck won't go amiss. Beckett's plan is to steal a huge consignment of coaxiam from the planet Vandor.

On snow covered mountain terrain on Vandor, a high altitude speeding monorail train carrying its cargo of coaxium comes into sight with Beckett's hijacked ship hovering above. Beckett, Solo and Chewbacca jump down onto the roof of the speeding train in an attempt to attach grappling hooks which are connected by wires to the above ship, with a view to uncoupling the carriage carrying the precious cargo, and winching the sole carriage away, job done! Not so easy however, as a gang of pirates known as the Cloud Riders led by Enfys Nest (Erin Kellyman) have plans to take the haul of hyperspace fuel for themselves. What follows is an impressive action set piece that ultimately sees the cargo plunge into a mountain side destroying said mountain in the process by reducing it to mere rubble, with the Cloud Riders and Beckett's ship escaping in opposite directions high above.

Back on the ground Beckett reveals that the coaxium was being stolen for Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany) - a high ranking crime lord associated with the Crimson Dawn Syndicate, and who has history with Beckett. Thinking on his feet for fear of death for loosing the shipment, Beckett wants to go it alone to explain himself to Vos, but is convinced otherwise by Solo. Accompanied by Chewbacca, the three travel to Vos's vast ship.

Upon entering, Vos is entertaining a cacophony of  high ranking officials and criminal types from all walks of life. Han finds Qi'ra who in the three years since they last saw each other, has become Vos's top ranking lieutenant. With Vos none too pleased about the loss of his shipment and ready to kill all three of them, Han suggests a risky plan to steal unrefined coaxium from the mines on the planet Kessel. Vos approves albeit somewhat reluctantly, but sees that their outlandish plan might just work. He insists that Qi'ra accompany the team on their mission, and warns them not to come back empty handed, or attempt to cheat him out of the coaxium consignment.

Qi'ra leads them to Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), a smooth talking and debonair smuggler of some repute and a pilot who she hopes will lend them his ship to take the crew to Kessel. Han challenges Lando to a game of sabacc, betting on Lando's ship. Unbeknown to Han, Lando cheats to win the game, but agrees to join the mission in exchange for a 25% share of the profits. The team boards his ship, the Millennium Falcon, and heads for Kessel.

Upon reaching Kessel and infiltrating the mine disguised as high ranking officials, Lando's droid co-pilot L3-37 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) instigates a slave revolt, so creating a diversion to allow Han and Chewbacca to steal a consignment of coaxium. On exiting the mine and before reboarding the Millennium Falcon a firefight breaks out between the heavily armed guards of the mine, the escaped workforce and the crew. Lando sustains a shoulder injury and L3 is severely damaged during the escape. 

With the coaxium stowed away aboard the Falcon, Han must navigate the ship along the dangerous and previous uncharted 'Maelstrom' in an attempt to evade an Imperial blockade located at the only point of exit/entry. Narrowly escaping the clutches of what can only be described as a giant space octopus the size of a small planet, and being dragged into a fire & brimstone black hole, the Falcon uses light speed and a small drop of coaxium injected into its fuel line to give it the oomph to get the Hell outta there. Badly damaged, the Falcon lands on the planet Savareen, where the coaxium is to be processed before handing it over to Vos. 

On Savareen, the crew are ambushed by Enfys Nest and her gang of Cloud Riders. During their frosty reception Lando flies off in the Falcon leaving the remaining crew grounded. Enfys reasons with Han that she and her crew are not pirates, but rather rebels trying to prevent the syndicates and the Empire from gaining power. Han understands their cause and tries to trick Vos with the now processed coaxium, but Beckett has already alerted him to the double cross. Vos sends his guards to kill Enfys, but the Cloud Riders turn the tables killing them instead, so leaving Vos without any defence. Having anticipated Vos' double crossing strategy, Han tries to take the coaxium, only for Beckett to escape with it taking Chewbacca hostage in the process. Han, Qi'ra and Vos battle it out with Qi'ra ultimately killing Vos. She sends Han after Beckett. Now alone, she contacts Vos's superior, Maul (Ray Park, and voiced by Sam Witwer), to inform him of the mission's failure and claim Vos's position within the Crimson Dawn Syndicate. Maul, orders her menacingly post haste to join him by his side, wielding his double sided lightsaber.

Han outruns Beckett and kills him. He and Chewbacca turn the coaxium over to Enfys and she offers Han a chance to join the rebellion against the Empire, which he declines. Upon leaving she gives him one vial of coaxium which should easily be enough to buy his own ship. Han and Chewbacca locate Lando and challenge him to another game of sabacc, once again betting on the Millennium Falcon. Han wins, having rumbled that Lando was a cheat and pick pocketed the card Lando was keeping up his sleeve in order to win. He and Chewbacca leave for Tatooine aboard their new ship, where Han has heard that a gangster is putting together a crew for a heist.  

I would have to say that compared to 'Rogue One : A Star Wars Story' that was the first hugely successful and well regarded stand alone film in the spin-off series that 'Solo' left me feeling a little disappointed and short changed. The casting is solid enough and for me Alden Ehrenreich delivers a convincing enough turn as the younger Han Solo, bearing in mind he has huge shoes to fill as quite possibly the most recognised and iconic movie character of all time. The visuals, action sequences and production values are also well rendered, but there is little new to see here in the story that we hadn't picked up before in Harrison Ford's earlier outings in the previous films. In this respect the film plays it safe taking us down a largely familiar path with an origin story that is a join the dots offering made good by fast paced action and relatable characters. But you can hardly blame Ron Howard for these shortcomings - after all he inherited to a very large extent the film we see today. There are nods that tie 'Solo' into the greater Star Wars universe - Solo and Chewie heading to Tatooine, and of course Qi'ra being inducted into the way of Maul (who made his first appearance in 'Star Wars : Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace', but these are fleeting nods thats serve nothing more than window dressing, at this stage, but then perhaps Disney has more in mind with future instalments. The film also features Jon Favreau voicing Rio Durant, Linda Hunt voices Lady Proxima and Anthony Daniels cameo's as Tak. 

For me this film merits three claps of the clapperboard, from a possible five. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 24th May 2018.

The 71st Cannes Film Festival which opened on 8th May drew to a close on Saturday evening 19th May. This year, Cate Blanchett acted as the Jury President for those twenty-one feature films competing for the prestigious Palme d'Or. The opening film was by Iranian Director and Screenwriter Asghar Farhadi with his Spanish language psychological thriller 'Everybody Know's' starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, with the closing film, and screening out of competition, was Terry Gilliam's lifetime in gestation on again off again passion project 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote' starring Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver.

The prestigious Palme d'Or was awarded out of twenty-one films in competition to 'Shoplifters' - a Japanese family drama edited, written, and Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. Set in Tokyo, this film centres on a family who rely on shoplifting as they cope with a life of poverty, whilst unofficially adopting a seemingly abused homeless girl with the Police beginning a search for the missing child. Beating out the competition in this category were the likes of 'Burning' from South Korea and starring Steven Yuen; 'BlacKkKlansman' from the USA, Directed by Spike Lee and starring Adam Driver, Topher Grace and Harry Belafonte, which took out the second most coveted award - the Grand Prix; 'Everybody Knows' as aforementioned; 'Under the Silver Lake' from the USA and starring Andrew Garfield, Topher Grace, and Riley Keough; and 'The Image Book' a French/Swiss Co-Production Directed by Jean-Luc Godard which won the Special Palme d'Or. Judges for this award also included Ava DuVernay, Lea Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Denis Villeneuve and Andrey Zvyagintsev.

In the Un Certain Regard category this year, in which eighteen films were showcased and overseen by Jury President Benicio del Toro, the Un Certain Regard Award was bestowed upon Swedish drama film 'Border' Directed and written for the screen by Ali Abbasi. This film staved off competition from the likes of 'Angel Face' from France starring Marion Cotillard; 'Donbass' from the Ukraine and the opening film in this selected category; 'The Dead and the Others' from Portugal and Directed by Joao Salaviza and Renee Nader Messora which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize; 'Rafiki' from Kenya; 'Girl' from Belgium; 'Long Day's Journey into Night' from China; 'Manto' from India; and 'Die, Monster, Die' from Argentina.

For more, you can go to : www.festival-cannes.com

This week we have just two new release movies coming to your local Odeon, and they couldn't be more polar opposite if they tried! First up is the second stand alone film in a massive movie franchise spanning now forty years about a young up & coming space cowboy from a galaxy far far away who many of us have grown up with - and this is his origin story. We then have a change of pace and coming back down to Earth, to rural England in the late '50's and one woman's dream of opening her own country book store which is thwarted by many of the local residents who have very different ideas.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the two latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online. You are here cordially invited to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and meanwhile, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'SOLO : A STAR WARS STORY' (Rated MA15+) - described as a 'Space Western' this second film in the Star Wars standalone anthology series follows on the heels of 'Rogue One : A Star Wars Story' released in 2016 and is set prior to the events in 'A New Hope'. That first standalone instalment was Directed by Gareth Edwards and took in excess of US$1B at the global Box Office off the back of a US$200M Budget outlay. This film Premiered in Los Angeles on 10th May, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival on 15th May and gets its US release this week too. Filming began in January 2017 under the Directing leadership of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and after almost five months of principle photography were fired from the set due to creative differences. They were replaced by Ron Howard who completed the last four weeks or so of principle photography and about another five weeks of reshoots. Lord and Miller are credited as Executive Producers. Made for a reported US$250M, early Reviews have indicated generally positive press.

This film, as the name implies, centres on a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and his adventures with his Wookie partner, best friend and first mate aboard the Millennium Falcon, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo). Also starring Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, a smuggler on the rise and whom Solo meets with for the first time; Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett, a criminal and mentor to Solo; Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra, a long time childhood friend of Solo's; with Paul Bettany as crime lord Dryden Vos, and Thandie Newton as Val. Jon Favreau voices Rio Durant, Linda Hunt voices Lady Proxima and Anthony Daniels cameo's as Tak.

'THE BOOKSHOP' (Rated PG) - this British, German and Spanish Co-Production is based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Penelope Fitzgerald and is helmed and Written for the Screen by Spanish Film Director Isabel Coixet. The film Premiered at the Valladolid International Film Festival in Valladolid, Spain in late October last year, has received generally positive Reviews picking up twelve Award wins and a further 32 nominations from around the film festival circuit and so far grossing US$3.5M in Box Office receipts. Set in the English coastal town of Hardborough, in Suffolk in 1959, Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) a middle aged widow, decides to open a book shop in 'The Old House', a rather dilapidated damp abandoned old residence that's said to be haunted by numerous ghosts. After much local opposition and many sacrifices, she eventually opens the doors on her bookshop which goes well for the first year and then sales begins to wane. Edmund Brandish (Bill Nighy), a local, is Florence's best customer and meanwhile Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson) also wants The Old House in which to set up an Arts Centre. What ensues is a political minefield spearheaded by Gamart's nephew, an MP, that Florence must navigate through if she is to preserve her beloved book shop, or succumb to local pressures that may leave her little choice but to move on.

With just two new release films out this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

STAR WARS : THE FORCE AWAKENS - Sunday 27th December 2015.

'STAR WARS : Episode VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS' (Rated M) - In 1977 a young George Lucas who already had a number of successful films under this belt, created a story that has become ingrained in popular culture, and has spawned an entire industry around successive stories, movies, books, television series, radio broadcasts, merchandise, video games and theme park attractions. That initial film was of course 'Star Wars' which later became 'Star Wars : Episode IV - A New Hope' with the original trilogy taking in successive films in 1980 and 1983. Then in 1999, the franchise was resurrected with an prequel trilogy kicking off with 'Star Wars : Episode I - The Phantom Menace' with two further instalments in 2002 and 2005. Those initial six films have grossed US$4.39B including the animated feature in 2008 'The Clone Wars' and each film has either been nominated for, or won, at The Academy Awards. Then in 2012 The Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm for in excess of US$4B and made it known that there would be a further three films in the franchise commencing with 'The Force Awakens' which would be set 30 or so year after 'Return of the Jedi'.

So then after all the hype, publicity, advertising, promotion, anticipation, expectation and frenzy from the world over since the first teaser trailer was released early this year, the film was released worldwide the week before Christmas to an awaiting audience hungry to see what Director J. J. Abrams could do with the storyline, the characterisation, the imagery, and the mythology of the earlier films. Having resurrected the 'Star Trek' franchise so successfully with two fairly recent films, and with a budget of US$200M it would seem that J.J. has got it right with Box Office records being smashed just about everywhere and a staggering global Box Office haul at the time of writing of US$1.16B - making it the fourth highest grossing film of 2015 already, the biggest grossing worldwide opening of all time and the fastest film ever to reach US$1B, and now in the Top 10 highest grossing movies of all time. Not so bad at all just two weeks after release!

And so to the story without giving away too much by way of spoiler content. That said first up we are introduced to a bunch of new characters - human and otherwise. Early on we meet acclaimed Resistance X-Wing fighter pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) on the planet Jakku who is in possession of a map that shows the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker, which he secrets away in his droid BB-8. Poe's village is destroyed at the hands of Stormtroopers led by Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) and Poe & BB-8 are separated. In time BB-8 comes across Rey (Daisy Ridley) a scavenger seeking out a living searching for bits of scrap she on sells for whatever she can get to sustain herself. Meanwhile Poe is captured and tortured by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) - on the dark side of the Force and originally with the Knights of Ren and now a Commander with the First Order which rose out of the Galactic Empire.

Poe is rescued by a Stormtrooper with a conscience, Finn (John Boyega) and together they escape in a hijacked TIE Fighter, crash landing back on Jakku, but it seems that Finn only has survived as Poe is nowhere to be seen. Finn stumbles across Rey who by now has laid claim to BB-8 but is unknowing of the map stashed away. The First Order has tracked down the crashed TIE Fighter and launches an air strike on where Finn, Rey and BB-8 are holed up. The three flee in a stolen, rundown ship - The Millennium Falcon that has been gathering dust in the desert.

After a fierce air battle over the desert wreckage of downed ships, The Millennium Falcon is captured by a larger ship piloted by one Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his faithful Wookie Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), who can't believe their luck. After exchanging social niceties, making requisite introductions and establishing the truth behind the Force and the events of some thirty years before the five make off for the green planet Takonda and meet in a cantina run by Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong'o) where Rey is attracted by the force of a lightsaber that belonged to Luke Skywalker and his father before him.

In the meantime we meet General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) who now heads up the Resistance, and who is reunited with Han and Chewie for the first time in many years. They clearly still hold a candle for each other, revealing a number of truths too that hitherto may have been unknown. Here they meet up with C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 who has gone into a self induced inactivity since Luke disappeared years ago. A plan is hatched to thwart the First Order on their manufactured planet - Starkiller Base - and so the Resistance head out with Han, Chewie, Rey and Finn in tow. Needless to say it all goes pear shaped for the First Order and Starkiller Base but not before a few surprises are delivered and the lightsaber fight between good & evil, the Dark Side and the Light reveals a new force to contend with.

Back at base camp on the planet D'Qar where the Resistance are housed R2-D2 awakens from his self imposed sleep and is able to complete the map showing the location of Luke Skywalker that BB-8 has stowed away. Using the completed coordinates Rey boards The Millennium Falcon with her new crew in search for Luke finding him on a distant green & blue planet where she hands over his former lightsaber.

In the final analysis I did enjoy this film, the spectacle of it, the effects which are very handsomely delivered, the characterisation (of the old and the new), and the continuing mythology of this epic space opera franchise. But, for all of that, it still lacked that magic that made the first three films in the saga so special and so memorable and introduced us to the characters and the story that we have come to know and love. Maybe it is because like that former 1984 other 'Star' franchise - 'Star Trek III : The Search for Spock' that I couldn't help thinking that this was just 'Star Wars VII : The Search for Skywalker' with a bunch of rag tag space miscreants thwarting an evil foe for the greater good, but with the latest cutting edge film making technology to add some pazzaz! J.J. has done a great job  and Disney can be proud of his achievements given the Box Office haul so far generated and the bums on seats it has planted. See it on the big screen for sure, and as a sequel it does better than any of the prequels, but it's not up there with the originals. Episode VIII will hit our screens in May 2017 and Episode IX in 2019 - coming at you from a galaxy far far away!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-