During an adventure into a dark criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his future copilot Chewbacca and encounters Lando Calrissian years before joining the Rebellion.
It doesn't feel like a cohesive piece, so while it's at times charming, and does get off the ground in the last act, the getting there is extremely bumpy.
If you've liked most if not all of the previous entries in this movie universe, you're probably going to be entertained. (Full Content Review for Parents - Violence, etc. - also Available)
Like Han Solo himself, Solo is rough around the edges. Under the grime, though, is a fun romp through space that's more lighthearted than you might expect from Star Wars.
The film is cohesive, zippy and confident to a fault, an interlocking piece of an ever-expanding - or should that be contracting - universe where most of the spontaneity has been relegated to the bad press.
Solo can't decide how many elements of the primary Star Wars narrative it wants to include, which translates into an uneasy mix of fan service and original thought.
Whenever "Star Wars" tries to develop one of the franchise's key characters, it whiffs. "Solo" is no exception, a disappointment on par with "The Last Jedi" and the prequels.