MOVIE REVIEW- SOLO

*** out of four

I'm not a big Star Wars fan, but I have enjoyed the last three Star Wars films that have been released, including the newest one, Solo. I saw it over the Memorial Day weekend at King of Prussia on a Sunday morning. The theater was about halfway full, mostly consisting of teen to middle aged fans.

Interesting to note that Solo, which depicts the early Hans Solo character, played by Harrison Ford in the future, has "bombed"  so far at the box office. It's has made money and will be the No. 1 movie for the important holiday weekend, but it has underachieved so far. In the wonderful world of Disney and Star Wars, underachieving isn't good, especially with so many future projects tied up in the franchise.

There are plenty of reasons making their way around the Internet why the movie isn't as wildly popular as other Star wars flicks. First, there in no Force to be found. It's a side-story about Solo, Chewbacca and a few other familiar characters and how they came to be. So, after over 40 years of getting acquainted with certain characters and the carefully structured plot and time-frame of events in the galaxy, there is no epic movie to dwell on and enjoy.

The problem with a prequel is that if you don't see any character in future ( or, in this case, past) Star Wars movies, chances are they will die in this one. We know Han Solo won't die in this one, because he lives to grow and become Harrison Ford down the road. In that way, some of the drama and fun are gone. We know everything will turn out OK.

Another reason is that the last movie in the franchise just came out not long ago. Call it Star Wars fatigue. Usually there is a good year, sometimes longer, between movies. There are nine more planned in the years to come, with the next one scheduled for release in December 2019.

The franchise has never done particularly well overseas, so it's no great surprise why it didn't do well internationally over the weekend. Here in America, despite the warning signals from fans wow weren't so enthusiastic, the lukewarm reception is more of a surprise.

Personally, I enjoyed the film. Action-packed from the get-go, I think I only fell sleep once, which is good for me at the movies. The battles and chases tend to be overly-long and tedious.

It was fun seeing old pros like Woody Harrelson get into the story. As a non-fan, maybe the impact of finally finding out how Solo obtained the Millennium Falcon doesn't hit home as hard, but Solo is a good popcorn, mindless adventure.

Other than three guys wearing hats like Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) there were no goofy costumes in the audience. Maybe that's hat true fans miss in this one. The campiness, the anticipation of camping out for tickets or to be the first one in the theater. Doesn't seem to be the fun associated with other Star Wars events.

 Funny, I may have liked Solo better than a real Star Wars fanatic. I took it as a summer action movie  no expectations no deep meaning, whereas a geek may criticize or stay away  from Solo, not wanting to be disappointed.

Solo will hang around theaters a while, at For a c least until mid-June when the next Jurassic Park film comes out. Escaping form reality for a few hours isn't the worst thing. Solo is a good time,e specially for the casual fan.