Solo: A Star War Story (Ron Howard) - 2018

It seemed from the beginning that most of this movie was filmed in the dark.  It could have been a device to portray these worlds as parts of the "dark side" or maybe it was just a method of keeping special effects under budget.  Now we know how Han (Alden Ehrenreich) got his last name, met Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) and acquired his spaceship from that card cheat, Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover).  They also tripled-down on the "galaxy far far away" where the word "parsec" is a measurement of time instead of distance.  Although George Lucas did not write this prequel, he surely will also not write the next prequel for Han's old girlfriend, Qi'ra [rhymes with Kira] played by Emilia Clarke who steals every scene from a laundry-list of one-timers in the Star Wars timeline including Beckett, Dryden, Rebolt and Korso.  Disney's neverending creation of Pokemons is designed to ensure that the non-Lucas space wars will keep that revenue machine clicking.  The Lucas stories were simply created in the manner of the Saturday matinee cliffhangers that keep you coming back for more popcorn.  The Disney version preys upon the boomer generation that can still hear the John Williams score that started it all in 1974.  [JAM 6/9/2018]