Solo: A Star Wars Story (12A)

Directed by Ron Howard

FROM a galaxy far, far away comes another spin-off Star Wars film, this time providing Han Solo's origin story but if you are expecting a groundbreaking and trailblazing standalone adventure then “much to learn you still have.”

Alas, no-one messes with the Star Wars story and in the safe and capable hands of director Ron Howard, the franchise has nought to fear.

If you were hankering to learn about how Solo's bromance with his co-pilot Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) and his undying love for the Millennium Falcon began, you are in the right place.

Harrison Ford's iconic Han Solo is a tough act to prequel but Alden Ehrenreich, who has a Ford-like air about him, makes the role his own, although Ford he is not.

Donald Glover makes a wonderfully charismatic and flamboyant — and possibly pan-sexual — Lando Calrissian, while Emilia Clarke fares better here as Solo’s best friend/love interest Qi’ra, than as Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys.

Set years before the Rebellion, at a time when crime syndicates ruled and kept the general populace oppressed and enslaved, the film chronicles how Solo became an outlaw and smuggler and the best pilot in the universe by joining the crew of misfits headed by Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson, in wonderful form).

With the screenplay by father-and-son team Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan, Howard delivers a fun and action packed spin-off with plenty of nods and winks to the Star Wars franchise. But that is the film's major problem. It's beholden to having to join the dots to George Lucas's vision in the original trilogy, so there is no room for flair, ingenuity or breathing fresh life into this well-trodden universe.

The reality is that Star Wars is critic-proof. Fans will go in their droves to see this but frankly they deserve more and better.