It really wasn’t an origin story so much as how Han met Chewie and got the Falcon, and we’ve known how he won it since 1980. The later Han Solo novels were much more lengthy and detailed in Han’s history than this movie. This was just a fun adventure like the early Brian Daley novels, which I’ve loved since I was a kid.
Are superheroes ruined for you because you know how they got their powers or decided to fight crime?If any character’s origin is mysterious, it’s Yoda, and should remain so. And they’d better not de-mystify the Force by explaining that…oh crap…
Superheroes aren’t ruined by origin stories, because usually we know their origin stories from the get go.
There are rare exceptions like Wolverine, and many would argue that his eventual origin ruined the mystique of the character and was disappointing.As far as the SOLO movie ruining Han…I don’t think it ruins the character, but it doesn’t do the character, as played by Harrison Ford, justice.
In ANH we get the impression that Han is a scoundrel, this shades-of-grey character, who shoots first. The good guys enlist his help, only in return for money. Or course Han has a change of heart at the end, but we’re led to believe he’s led a pretty questionable life up to that point.
In SOLO…SPOILERS
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He’s pretty vanilla. A very safe, acceptable Disney hero. He’s Aladdin.
Normally, I’d say that the character is ruined for me, but SOLO is so different from the character we saw in ANH that it feels more like fan-fiction, than canon.
It’s a fun movie, but again, very safe. I think Han Solo’s real backstory is a lot more crazy.We’re seeing him at very beginning of his smuggler career. It would have been unrealistic to show young Han fully formed as the character we met in ANH. The Brian Daley books painted a good picture of Han as someone who rarely trusted anyone but his Wookiee pal. One character threw the question Where are the people in your life? at him. He plays at being cynical to avoid getting attached, avoid pain. But he also occasionally does the right thing. He smuggles weapons to a group who have little chance of defeating their oppressors, (outnumbered and inexperienced) but takes the time to show them how to work a blaster properly.
If we get a second movie, I’m sure we would see Han become more like that cynical guy who ended up smuggling drugs for Jabba. 😛
You make a good point that he’s at the beginning of his smuggling career.
But he’s not at the beginning of his criminal career.
He says in the film that he’s been running scams on the streets since he was 10.
I’d imagine that by the time he was 18 he would be a little more hardened.
It’s funny that he has to be taught, as an adult, “not to trust ANYONE.”
How would he have survived that long without having already had that type of attitude.
That’s something juvenile criminals learn early on.
You mention that he’s at the beginning of his smuggling career, so he’s a different Han from the one we see in ANH, right? And yet, not really. Han risks his life at the end of ANH to help the rebels. At the end of SOLO, he risks his life to help the rebels.