Jon Solo Sebastian 05/24/2026:

I’ve already written a little about this film, but it was the first thing to pop in my head here. It’s a Star Wars movie… Solo: A Star Wars Story. First of all, I am not a fan of the title for this movie. In fact, most of the shows and movies they’ve been doing in Star Wars lately have had terrible titles.

Examples of terrible titles:

Andor

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Maul: Shadow Lord (at least the Shadow Lord part is good)

The Mandalorian and Grogu

Starfighter

The Mandalorian

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Ahsoka

There just isn’t anything to pump up the fans when you look at these titles. Some of those shows and movies have been fine, but the titles are very unimaginative. Nothing like: Return of the Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back, Revenge of the Sith, The Phantom Menace, or Rogue One. Those are fun and get the brain wondering what will happen in those films.

This isn’t a knock on any of those in the list. Andor is a decent show, but it isn’t just about the character Cassian Andor. There are several big players in that show. Maybe something like, The Rise of the Rebellion would have been better.

Anyway, I’m going way off the path of what was asked here.

What movie did I expect to hate but ended up loving?

I went to see the Solo film fully expecting to hate it. Seeing someone that is not Harrison Ford playing the beloved Han Solo? That alone felt wrong. At the time, I was having my doubts about Star Wars, anyway. I’m a lifelong fan, but the sequel trilogy was not doing it for me. The Force Awakens was okay, but I still to this day hate The Last Jedi. It just wasn’t a good film, and it turned the hero of the franchise into a grumpy old loser…. I won’t bore you with my complaints.

So, yes, my Star Wars fandom was already on shakey ground, but I wasn’t going to miss seeing a Star Wars film in the theater. I thought for sure this movie was going to be awful. While some fans out there say it’s a terrible film, or they just didn’t like it, I fell in love with it. For me, it is the best and most true to Star Wars film in the era of Disney’s ownership outside of Rogue One. Five minutes into the film, I leaned over to my wife and said, “I love this guy.” Alden Ehrenreich wasn’t Harrison Ford, and he wasn’t trying to be. He was playing the role of a young Han Solo, and he did it masterfully. Sure, he wasn’t the right height. He didn’t look like Han Solo, but man, did he convince me that he was Han Solo. All the mannerisms, the silly arrogant clumsiness; it was all there. I know some folks disagree, but he did a great job.

The movie itself was not the best, but it was a really good Star Wars adventure with great characters. It felt like it had George Lucas’ soul and love imbedded into it. There are gripes, but I won’t go into those other than how he got his last name… LAME!! He didn’t need some weird way to get a name. He could really just be Han Solo and we move along.

But yes, this was a movie I thought for sure I’d hate, but I ended up loving it, and I am so disappointed that we’ll never get the follow-up to the film.