Han Solo brought cool to the sci-fi genre with his aloof attitude, lack of hesitation to shoot first, and style. It's a character unlike any other before him and led to countless copycats up to Marvel's Star Lord. Through the original Star Wars trilogy we watch as Solo develops from a selfish smuggler out to make a few bucks to becoming a team player who makes sacrifices to help his friends and family until his death at the end of his own son in Force Awakens. Oh crap! Spoilers for Force Awakens... But what was the space rebel without a cause like before the fate of the Galaxy was thrust upon his shoulders?

Solo: A Star Wars Story is what Phantom Menace should have been. A prequel that skips the needless childhood years and jumps right into the formative young adulthood age. Showing a young Solo as the scheming outlaw we already know him as but without all the rough edges fully roughed up yet. Unlike the current offerings in this Disney Star Wars universe, it seems that the writers dipped into the Lucas well of cannon backstory a bit. That is the film is penned by none other than Empire and Jedi writer Lawrence Kasdan and son Johnathan a duo who are both parts responsible for the characters we know and grew up knowing them. Solo feels the most tied to the original Star Wars trilogy in both characters and world. Gone are the annoying jokey-jokes of Last Jedi and back is the familiar world we all fell in love with.

A criticism I have of this film and Rogue One is that the droid technology seems to be more advanced in these films than in Episode IV-VI. I know it's nitpicky but Lando's droid, L3, has the operating system of a sassy woman while 10 years later 3PO is all persnickety and adheres to all requests made of him. Perhaps we simply did not see an independent thinking droid before K2SO and L3 because 3PO simply was not programmed that way but where were all the other droids like K2SO in the original trilogy?!?!?! Okay, sorry. That went on too long.

Beyond that I really enjoyed Solo quite a bit and am excited knowing that Alden Ehrenreich has signed on for two more movies. Now will those be three more Han-centric films or will the films deal with stories set in motion in this film, is yet to be discovered. Whatever the case; if the other two films are on par with this one then it is a trilogy that will be ranked high in the list of Star Wars trilogies.