【The Relic Of My Sister Next Door】

If you were to stray into an in-progress screening of Solo without knowing its title,The Relic Of My Sister Next Door you'd be able to identify it as a Star Wars film pretty much immediately.

We're never more than a moment away from the familiar look and feel of the franchise: blaster fire, screaming ships, delightful droids, exotic and spartan planets, the sonic warble of alien creatures, the ham-radio chatter of Imperial stormtroopers.

SEE ALSO: 'Solo' spoiler-free review: This is not the Han you know, and that's a good thing

That said, Solomanages to stretch the possibilities of Star Wars in interesting new directions, just as The Last Jedidid last December. But unlike that movie, which was forced to make difficult choices in resolving its predecessor's cliffhangers, Solohas plenty of room to maneuver -- and should surprise and delight even the old-school fans who enter the theater heavy with expectations.

Like its protagonist, the movie is relaxed and confident, with Western-style swagger and a winning smile. There are jokes aplenty, despite the replacement of Lego Moviedirectors Phil Lord and Chris Miller with Ron Howard midway through the shoot. It's funny enough. Any funnier and it would tip over into slapstick absurdity (which seems to be why Lord and Miller were shown the door).

This is blue-collar Star Wars at its best

Solois zippy, light summer fun, and yet also offers gritty moments that will stick in your brain long after your popcorn container hits the trash on the way out. It manages to feel both contemporary and classic. It's rather like an old-school "expanded universe" novel brought to life -- a tight little story stuffed with references to other Star Wars media.

Yet unlike those books it doesn't quite put all its toys back in the box at the end. An intriguing thread is left deliberately untied, the wider story of Star Wars pushed forward a little.

And as in Rogue One, the Star Wars movie it most resembles, we're very much down in the dirt at the ground level during the Dark Times, under the jackboot of the Empire.

In short, this is blue-collar Star Wars at its best.

Feisty heists and the ages of Han

You've probably heard that Solois a heist movie -- and indeed, a pair of heists sit at the center of the story's engine. There is as much Macguffin-hunting and audacious double-crossing as you'd expect from Lawrence Kasdan, the guy who began his career penning Raiders of the Lost Arkbefore doing a rewrite on Empire Strikes Back.

But there are more layers to it than that, chronologically and emotionally speaking. At times it almost feels a little Shakespearean, and I'm thinking in particular of the "seven ages of man" speech.

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Call it the seven ages of Han: first comes the frightened, desperate boy on the shipbuilding world of Corellia. Then comes the soldier in the trenches, trying to figure out what the hell this star war means and how to escape it. In short order we see him as thief, pilot, card sharp, hustler, good guy.

We're watching Han grow up before our eyes. And that's why the question many of us have been asking for months -- is Alden Ehrenreich a passable young Harrison Ford? -- is the wrong question. Because it's not one you'll be thinking during the movie.

No, Ehrenreich isn't trying to imitate Ford. Nor should he. Instead, he's inhabiting young Han. He shows us the greenness, the uncertainty barely masked by arrogance. Not only does the plot drive him forward fast enough that the other Han Solo barely has time to enter your brain, but he's also accompanied the whole time.

That's right -- ironically, Solo is never solo in Solo. Like all Star Wars films, this is fundamentally an ensemble flick about a family or tribe (as one character says, what's the difference?) -- one that bands together, banters, fights and breaks up just like all families or tribes do.

All the galaxy's a stage, and all the men and women merely scoundrels.

Lando and the gang

Surprisingly, I found Ehrenreich's performance more convincing than the Lando Calrissian created by Donald Glover -- who doesseem to be doing an impression of his elder version as portrayed by Billy Dee Williams.

He's still Donald Glover, which in itself bestows a great deal of swag, but you get the impression that Glover's natural enthusiasm and twinkling charm is just a little too buried under layers of arrogance. Still, the movie goes overboard on his space-cape costumery, which forgives a lot.

Likewise, Woody Harrelson is perfectly serviceable as Tobias Beckett, Han's underworld mentor. But you'd be forgiven for thinking you've seen this exact cynical, hard-drinking, reluctant teacher character before -- it's Haymitch Abernathy from the Hunger Gamesseries, with more scuffed-up clothes and curlier hair.

We'll be talking more about Emilia Clarke's Qi'ra character after fans have had a chance to see her, but suffice to say she spends most of the movie playing a role that doesn't allow her much leeway in her performance. The same unfortunately goes for Val (Thandie Newton), although we would have liked to see more of her.

The MVPs include Paul Bettany, who plays the cartel boss Dryden Vos with sinister British psycho charm, as if he's in some galactic version of Goodfellas. And speaking of Brits, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is an absolute revelation as the droid L3-37. She brings such personality to a motion-captured CGI character that it is no exaggeration to call her the best droid in all of Star Wars.

Speaking of computer graphics, there's way less of it in this film than you might expect from a modern summer blockbuster. It only plays a major role in a few scenes. Howard and his team are more efficient at building suspense over something that's just off-screen than most modern directors.

If you're tired of giant computerized battle scenes with too much movement by too many characters to track, if you enjoyed but were exhausted by Infinity War, then this is the practical-effects palate cleanser for you. Everything in this world feels heavier, more substantial, than the average half-animated fare.

It's still a wild ride, just one that depends much more on plot and character than computer graphics. And it manages to upend enough expectations to keep you on your toes.

As Lando tells Han: You might want to buckle up, baby.

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Topics Star Wars