Movie Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Review (1 Viewer)

[JakeyWantsCakey]

WARNING! THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR STAR WARS EP. IV: A NEW HOPE!

Ok so I have a confession to make... this is my first time watching this movie the whole way through! I know, shocking, some may say blasphemous; my dad had the whole original trilogy in a VHS box set when I was a kid and I would give the movies a go every so often because the box looked cool but as a little kid it never really kept my attention. I think it was because C-3PO annoyed me and the beginning of the movie is pretty heavy on him.

So, what did my virgin eyes make of the movie?

I actually really enjoyed it! It's not really like anything you see in the modern Action/Adventure movies nowadays (God, I sound like an old man lol) but I think that's what I liked about it. I think at this point I'm so used to watching Marvel superhero movies that all follow the same basic structure and formula, that I was kind of expecting this movie to follow that same basic outline in the way that the sequel trilogy has but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this movie strays away from those now trope-y story beats. I found this movie to be INCREDIBLY well paced and it had a level of patience in it's storytelling that you rarely get to see in modern entertainment, probably due to our generation's shrinking attention span. The movie only has a two hour runtime but it felt longer (in a good way!)

George Lucas really took his time in introducing each character and it feels like a real ensemble if it wasn't for the basic level of Star Wars knowledge that I already had before coming into this movie, I don't think that I'd even consider Luke to be the main character of this film. We don't even get introduced to him until 17 minutes into the movie which is something that you'd never see now! It takes an hour and 15 minutes before our core trio comes together and when they finally do, they have some of the best dialog in the entire movie. I LOVE how snarky Princess Leia is with the boys right off the bat and Lucas manages to make her fun and bad ass without it feeling cheesy or pandering.

Although I like Lucas' writing there are some places where I think it falls short in rather jarring ways especially when it comes to emotional moments in the story. For example, when Luke's aunt and uncle get killed by the Empire, he just stands there with a plank look on his face while he's staring at their BURNING SKELETONS! He doesn't cry, he doesn't scream, he doesn't fall to his knees in despair... like, what the actual f*ck? The people who raised you were just MURDERED and you have no emotional reaction to that? This isn't the only time that happens in this movie either! It happens when Princess Leia's home planet get destroyed by the Death Star and again when one of Luke's childhood friends gets killed trying to destroy the Death Star, again with no emotional reaction or outburst by the effected characters. Hell, Luke was more torn up about Obi Wan Kenobi getting killed than he was about the people who RAISED HIM!!!

The rest of my critique is mainly about the version of the movie that they have on Disney+ and therefore isn't really criticism of the movie itself but throughout this version of the movie there are these relatively useless CGI cut scenes that clearly do not belong in this movie from the SEVENTIES! One of these scenes however does somewhat add to the story of the film, with Han Solo negotiating a deal with Jabba The Hutt but again the jarring imagery of this CGI Jabba, super imposed onto old footage of Harrison Ford really breaks your suspension of disbelief and the added context really doesn't end up being worth anything in the end. It's such a shame too because all of the rest of the special effects really holds up well to this day and it just goes to show you, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

So in conclusion, I really liked this movie!
4 out of 5 Stars from me!​

 

[JakeyWantsCakey]

@Darth_Felflame

 

[Ashla_K]

I'm glad you liked it. I was a teenager when I saw the movie for the first time and for me it was such a unique experience, even now it still feels fresh and innovative, which is incredible considering how old it is. I believe SW can only be compared with 2001: Space Odyssey in that sense, timeless masterpieces.

 

[RandAlThor]

WARNING! THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR STAR WARS EP. IV: A NEW HOPE!

Ok so I have a confession to make... this is my first time watching this movie the whole way through! I know, shocking, some may say blasphemous; my dad had the whole original trilogy in a VHS box set when I was a kid and I would give the movies a go every so often because the box looked cool but as a little kid it never really kept my attention. I think it was because C-3PO annoyed me and the beginning of the movie is pretty heavy on him.

So, what did my virgin eyes make of the movie?

I actually really enjoyed it! It's not really like anything you see in the modern Action/Adventure movies nowadays (God, I sound like an old man lol) but I think that's what I liked about it. I think at this point I'm so used to watching Marvel superhero movies that all follow the same basic structure and formula, that I was kind of expecting this movie to follow that same basic outline in the way that the sequel trilogy has but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this movie strays away from those now trope-y story beats. I found this movie to be INCREDIBLY well paced and it had a level of patience in it's storytelling that you rarely get to see in modern entertainment, probably due to our generation's shrinking attention span. The movie only has a two hour runtime but it felt longer (in a good way!)

George Lucas really took his time in introducing each character and it feels like a real ensemble if it wasn't for the basic level of Star Wars knowledge that I already had before coming into this movie, I don't think that I'd even consider Luke to be the main character of this film. We don't even get introduced to him until 17 minutes into the movie which is something that you'd never see now! It takes an hour and 15 minutes before our core trio comes together and when they finally do, they have some of the best dialog in the entire movie. I LOVE how snarky Princess Leia is with the boys right off the bat and Lucas manages to make her fun and bad ass without it feeling cheesy or pandering.

Although I like Lucas' writing there are some places where I think it falls short in rather jarring ways especially when it comes to emotional moments in the story. For example, when Luke's aunt and uncle get killed by the Empire, he just stands there with a plank look on his face while he's staring at their BURNING SKELETONS! He doesn't cry, he doesn't scream, he doesn't fall to his knees in despair... like, what the actual f*ck? The people who raised you were just MURDERED and you have no emotional reaction to that? This isn't the only time that happens in this movie either! It happens when Princess Leia's home planet get destroyed by the Death Star and again when one of Luke's childhood friends gets killed trying to destroy the Death Star, again with no emotional reaction or outburst by the effected characters. Hell, Luke was more torn up about Obi Wan Kenobi getting killed than he was about the people who RAISED HIM!!!

The rest of my critique is mainly about the version of the movie that they have on Disney+ and therefore isn't really criticism of the movie itself but throughout this version of the movie there are these relatively useless CGI cut scenes that clearly do not belong in this movie from the SEVENTIES! One of these scenes however does somewhat add to the story of the film, with Han Solo negotiating a deal with Jabba The Hutt but again the jarring imagery of this CGI Jabba, super imposed onto old footage of Harrison Ford really breaks your suspension of disbelief and the added context really doesn't end up being worth anything in the end. It's such a shame too because all of the rest of the special effects really holds up well to this day and it just goes to show you, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

So in conclusion, I really liked this movie!
4 out of 5 Stars from me!​

I refuse to watch eps 4-5 6 on anything but vhs (you can find em but most are a tad beat up)or i have a set of video cd's(yes they do exist i believe mine came from Malaysia ) that has the og movies on 2 cd's each.
That they put Hayden into ep 6 was enough to make me never buy the dvd/blu ray.
Those mentioned special effects, added scenes are an abomination on otherwise enjoyable movies.

to add watching that opening seq as a young kid i thought that ship went on forever.

 

[LoveYooShaSha]

I refuse to watch eps 4-5 6 on anything but vhs (you can find em but most are a tad beat up)or i have a set of video cd's(yes they do exist i believe mine came from Malaysia ) that has the og movies on 2 cd's each.
That they put Hayden into ep 6 was enough to make me never buy the dvd/blu ray.
Those mentioned special effects, added scenes are an abomination on otherwise enjoyable movies.

to add watching that opening seq as a young kid i thought that ship went on forever.

I bought the 6 movie dvd set ard 2015/2016. im in malaysia, if u know wat tat means.

Never got the sw4,5,6 on vcd cos i think they were obsolete/no demand by 1999/phantom menace time. Went to watch sw4 special edition in cinema cos only way to watch on big screen then. Im not purist abt sw cos theres one scene the burning corpses of uncle owen/aunt beru tat i missed noticing/seeing on tv so i was used to butchered versions (imo) already.(just read op n saw reference to it by jakey yoda lol)

If they put out a HD/4K OG version, tats the one i will watch from now till the end of time(but ill watch it like i sometimes do LOTR extended version, sometimes i just watch short(er) version broadcast on tv/cable then i take out my dvds n watch deleted scenes[reason i do this is the cinema marathon in 2003(?) killed me/ convinced me its not better (for me) to spend tat many hours consecutively watching LOTR{Id already bought extended LOTR b4 previoysly in the past yrs pre- marathon but i wanted 2 watch on big screen, fell asleep most of two towers n marathon was first screening of ROTK so no extended scenes, if id knowb i would hv skipped two towers n napped somewhere else so nobody had to hear me snore}

Edit to add: i love ep4 ANH, i cant help it- part of my childhood n touchstone to my science fiction loving, movie watchibg whole life. I cant really be as objective as someone new to it. So be it.

 

[yeji]

jakey like always is a true hero

 

[RainbowDevil]

Interesting, I for one am one of those people that can't completely take it seriously cause of how old it was. It's not a bad movie I was just dying to get through it and get to the second instalment which i love quite a bit more. You are correct to say that the way he introduced the characters was great and is something you'd never see today. Nowadays you'd get an entire movie for Luke, Han and Leia and only then make an "avengers" movie where they are all together And yes, definitely todays audiences have a short attention span and can only watch stuff if it constantly throws stuff at the viewer like CGI, explosions or action. If they talk a lot, the movie is boring. And theres a lot of talking in older movies.

Good review, I'm glad you liked it and I recommend the next movie as it's my favorite from the original trilogy.

 

[JakeyWantsCakey]

Interesting, I for one am one of those people that can't completely take it seriously cause of how old it was. It's not a bad movie I was just dying to get through it and get to the second instalment which i love quite a bit more. You are correct to say that the way he introduced the characters was great and is something you'd never see today. Nowadays you'd get an entire movie for Luke, Han and Leia and only then make an "avengers" movie where they are all together And yes, definitely todays audiences have a short attention span and can only watch stuff if it constantly throws stuff at the viewer like CGI, explosions or action. If they talk a lot, the movie is boring. And theres a lot of talking in older movies.

Good review, I'm glad you liked it and I recommend the next movie as it's my favorite from the original trilogy.

I’m gonna watch another one today!