Star Wars1977

94/100 I don't even know what to say at this point. It's Star Wars, everyone knows what Star Wars is and why it's good, but I might as well try anwyays. And as a quick sidenote, Star Wars is a much better name than the dorky "A New Hope." Get out of here with that. First of all, I think we need to be saying more about the special effects here. It's really groundbreaking, and you can see the stage being set for almost every sci-fi to follow. It holds up remarkably well, even by today's standards. The worldbuilding is also great here. George Lucas grounds this unfamiliar world in familiar concepts and lets us know the history of this world without explicitly stating it. We don't need to know what the Clone Wars are yet, we just need to know Obi-Wan fought in them and the experience scarred him deeply. I know I've heaped praise on John Williams before, but it can never be enough. This film wouldn't be as good without his score driving it, especially that main theme, which I can almost entirely from memory, that's how good it is. The story here is basic, but this is also a good strength, as it takes a concept basic to us: a story about a knight rescuing a princess with the help of a wizard and a rogue to defeat an evil empire, and executes it to a level of competency never seen before in an entirely new genre: the space opera. If I had one critique of this film, it's that the action is a mixed bag. Now don't get me wrong, sequences like the Battle of Yavin are greatly shot and directed, serving as amazing action setpieces for this film. However, the action isn't exactly perfect. One scene in particular which exemplifies this is the battle between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. The lightsaber battle is much slower than future installments, and much less dynamic as a result, and as such the film suffers from what should be an epic battle feeling weirdly arthritic and weak. As the action alternates from amazing highs to disappointing lows, the film is instead forced to rely on its characters, which are thankfully amazing. I don't particularly like Luke here, Mark Hamill is obviously new to acting and I feel future installments do more for him. However, he's made up for by everyone else. Never again will such broad archetypes be executed in such a compelling way. Obi-Wan makes for a wise mentor figure who's fun to watch. Leia works as both a kind princess and a surprisingly strong female character for the time once shooting starts. I also like R2D2, he's just fun to watch. However, the film is mainly carried by two characters: Han Solo and Darth Vader. I can't say anything that hasn't already been said about Harrison Ford's swagger or David Prowse's physical performance combined with James Earl Jones' deep, intimidating voice. We know these two characters as icons, and it's mainly due to how well they're executed here. This is a film which one can go on and on about explaining how it succeeds on nearly every level, but at some point I think we have to realize that it's not because of that it succeeded. This film succeeded because it's fun, and because it's extraordinarily good at convincing us that this fun's actually happening a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. It's all it sets out to do, and it does it quite well in my opinion. A superb film on every level, and a shining testament as to how good this franchise is on the whole.