Disclaimer: This is not gospel, this is just the opinion of a man who has loved Star Wars for a long time and has hated to watch the decline of movies in general.
I've got a bad feeling about this. This trailer, where do I even begin? For a start the whole thing just did not feel like Star Wars. I know everyone has their own version of what the perfect Star Wars movie is but come on, is this really doing it for anyone? It looks like an okay action movie with a bit of sci-fi twist but Star Wars, I'm just not seeing it. This trailer has all the action/heist movie cliches. The old "putting a crew together" line. The space car chase. The daring battle on some sort of fast moving vehicle( in this case a space train). And let's not forget "love interest" talking about how only he/she/etc really gets the protagonist. Throw in a few special effects shots of the space cops(Empire) right on their tails as they race through a dangerous tunnel/gas cloud/Kessel run and layer in some cookie cutter dialogue and boom you got a trailer. A trailer so boring and predictable that the guys over at RLM(Red Letter Media) were able to react to it almost perfectly a week before it came out.
Now on to the actors. Woody Harrelson in Star Wars, really Disney? It would be great if he somehow gave a great performance and really knocked it out of the park. But has he ever? When you say great actors, does anyone really think of Woody Harrelson? In some eyes competent, maybe even good, but great? It's not like he's some basically unknown actor getting his first big break, he has a large body of work which produces for most people a meh. When you leave a movie with Woody Harrelson you go "Wow he didn't ruin that one". Not really the kind of guy most people would say should be in one of the largest franchises of all time.
Emilia Clarke. I just don't get it. She ranges from passable to wooden on Game of Thrones. To say she was mediocre in Terminator Genisys is generous. Yet everyone loves her for some reason. What is it with Lucasfilm wanting to cast the most mediocre vanilla women in Star Wars? Not really a whole lot to say about her, she hasn't done much and what she has done was just meh.
Donald Glover. I think Donald Glover is a good actor. I think he has the capacity to balance humor, wit, and emotion and I was actually a little excited when I heard he had been cast as young Lando. I enjoyed his role on Community and his small role in the the Lazarus Effect to name a few. What worries me is he was only featured briefly in the trailer. I hope they don't relegate him to side character status and waste him.
Alden Ehrenreich. I really don't think he has enough major work to really judge him. I wasn't impressed by anything I saw from him in the trailer. Also the fact that he needed an acting coach brought in isn't really encouraging. I hope he does a good job. I am more willing to give him a chance because he's an unknown and the original Star Wars helped bring some great talent to light in 1977 so it's only fair to give a new generation a chance. A risk like this makes more sense to me than casting say, Woody Harrelson. I have also read a lot of "he looks way too young" comments. While I agree he does look a little young, Star Wars has never really been stellar when it comes to continuity/timescale (see Kenobi going from 30 to 85 in 20 years and the Jedi being forgotten in the same time). If he does a good job I think we can overlook it.
Now on to the big question, was this movie even necessary? No, no it wasn't. I suppose you could argue that none of the Star Wars movies after the original were necessary, but even in the context of the universe this one feels like a cash grab. Han Solo was presented as a small time criminal that was thrust into greater things against his better judgment. You don't really need to know about his life before the main trilogy. The number one rule of good story telling is show don't tell. You can see he loves his ship, is a great pilot, and cares about Chewbacca from the way he acts in situations that actually advance the narrative. He doesn't sit down and tell a long winded tale about how he met Chewy and he doesn't need too. The ship that made the Kessel run in 12 parsecs, you know it's supposed to be important because of the way he talks about it as a point of pride. He doesn't have to show you a slide show of him doing it. Taking the mystery out of backstory is something the fans often claim to want but in the end is almost always disappointing (see Midichlorians). Prequels rarely work out well and with Disney's stewardship so far I'm not filled with confidence.
So to sum this all up. I hope the movie is good but it really doesn't need to exist and will probably disappoint a lot of people and the cast is mediocre at best. Also I don't care about the director change because these movies are made by committee and one hack is as good as another.
tl;dr I hope the movie is good but it really doesn't need to exist and will probably disappoint a lot of people and the cast is mediocre at best.