Solo: A Star Wars Story - 1 nomination

Visual Effects - Rob Bredow, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Dominic Tuohy

The thrilling part of Solo is that it is an origin story, so we learn how Han Solo got his last name, how he meets other key players in the universe like Lando Calrissian, how he meets best buddy Chewbacca, etc.  But the fun of the film is learning other things about Han, the back story of how he tries to escape imprisonment with his love, how they were separated and the adventures he went on trying to get back to her.  There is a lot of cross and double cross in this film, so much so that it's almost impossible to share a summary of it without really spoiling the experience of watching it. 

The casting of the young players, Han, Lando, are done so beautifully that it is easy to imagine these two people growing up to be Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams.  That, to me, was the biggest gamble of the film - if you cast these characters poorly, you get an entirely unbelievable recreation that doesn't work.  But both of these young actors, Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover, nail it. 

For those of you who follow the blog, you know that it is impossible to make a Star Wars universe film that I'm going to dislike.  But this one worked - even for the die hards, and that's saying something.