He belongs in a better movie, but at least he perks this one up. Star Wars lore is woefully lacking in sex appeal-even Han Solo is more of a guy’s guy-but Glover has an unruly, charismatic elegance. And Donald Glover is a blast as Solo’s friendly nemesis-frenemis?-Lando Calrissian. He has better luck with actors, and just about everyone does good work here: Clarke is vibrant and subtle, even in a cartoony role. But that’s a dubious badge of distinction anyway. The hard truth about this just-OK Star Wars universe plug-in is that Howard simply may not be the best director of special-effects-heavy space operas. Hint: They’re stuck in a hole, and there’s mud. And at the very least, you’ll find out how Solo and his future copilot and loyal sidekick Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), met. Solo: A Star Wars story brightens up a little in the second half, both visually and in terms of plot momentum. Like oil, it’s the sort of thing people fight over, and the villainous mogul Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany, with pinky-red tiger stripes on his face) wants the juice for himself. The story involves the theft of a cache of coaxium, which is both starship fuel and fuel for a revolution. Desperate to escape his grungy surroundings-not that his environs improve much visually after he does so-he enlists with the Empire and goes to war, where he meets another grifter, Beckett (Woody Harrelson).

He’s got a girlfriend, Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) he dreams of being a pilot. We first meet young Solo on the squalid planet Correllia, a society of runaways and ne’er-do-wells. And to the degree that it matters, the plot is throwaway.

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