The Rotten Tomatoes score for Solo: A Star Wars Story has been revealed and, while the movie is fresh, it isn't stacking up all that great when compared to other movies in the franchise. As of this writing, the Han Solo standalone has a 73 percent approval rating from critics, with 88 reviews counted. That gives it a fresh rating, but not quite enough for it to be certified Fresh by the website.
According to the website, movies "are Certified Fresh with a steady Tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide-release movies, 40 for limited-release movies, 20 for TV shows), including 5 reviews from Top Critics." That 73 percent score currently ranks Solo as the third-lowest entry in the long-running franchise. The only two with worse scores currently are Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (55 percent) and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (66 percent). Here is the critic consensus for Solo, as per Rotten Tomatoes.
"A flawed yet fun and fast-paced space adventure, Solo: A Star Wars Story should satisfy newcomers to the saga as well as longtime fans who check their expectations at the theater door."
Solo finds itself in the middle of a prequel sandwich, as Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, which is generally considered to be the best of the prequels, is just above it with 79 percent. This also makes the latest standalone the lowest of any Star Wars movie in the Disney era of Lucasfilm. The Force Awakens is the highest at 93 percent, followed by The Last Jedi at 91 percent (though, the movie has just a 47 percent audience rating). Then comes Rogue One with an 85 percent.
For what it's worth, the highest-rated movie in the franchise, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise, is The Empire Strikes Back with a 95 percent rating. The majority of reactions thus far for Solo are positive though and, considering how troubled the production was, it's pretty amazing that this movie isn't a total dumpster fire. Ron Howard had to reshoot 70 percent of the movie once Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired last year right near the end of production. Not only did Howard pull it off, but Disney and Lucasfilm didn't have to bump back the release date at all. That's impressive, most impressive.
Ultimately, it doesn't sound like Solo: A Star Wars Story is going to go down as one of the greatest movies in a galaxy far, far away, but it won't be a famous misfire either. If the movie does big business at the box office, and so far it looks like that's going to happen, then this should be considered a win for the studio. And who knows? It looks like we might get a Lando movie out of the deal, so maybe this is all going to work out. This news comes to us courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes.