My Review of "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope"

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope came out back in 1977. I watched this movie when I was a little kid and frankly I didn't know what was going on back then. Later on as a teenager I loved this movie as I could grasp the concepts that were happening in the movie. Then into adulthood I still liked this movie but does this movie hold up today for me?

The movie starts off with a narrative crawl as many of you already know. It's setting up the scenario where the Empire has created a planet destroying moon base and the rebels have some sort of schematics to destroy it. Unfortunately the plans are being intercepted by a big bad villain named Darth Vader.

Before Vader can take the information a princess named Leia hides the plans in a droid named R2D2 and launches the droid along with its droid companion C3PO away from the ship. Their mission is to find a mysterious character named Obi Wan Kenobi. He's supposed to figure out how to save the rebels and the plan.

Of course this doesn't go according to plan because the droids get shipwrecked and captured by some sleazy merchants. There they get sold to a farming couple who host their nephew Luke. Cleaning the droids Luke stumbles upon Leia's message and the droids influence him to search for Obi Wan Kenobi.

Upon discovering the mysterious Obi Wan, they all soon embark on a grand adventure to save the princess and her plans to destroy the planet destroying moon base. The adventure really starts to pick up here.

There is a lot of build up to that point and if you already know the story it gets a little bland watching through it again. It doesn't help that there is a very 70s method of acting and direction in this movie. In some ways it helps with the charm of this movie but can feel a little disjointed as there are some early 2000s style CGI added to the film.

With all the new Star Wars franchise movies and shows out now this movie feels a little weird to watch. Things aren't as over the top as they are nowadays and it makes the consistency of the series a little weird to watch through. I could tell that they took liberties with the technology and knowledge of the characters in later movies and shows because they weren't that sophisticated in this movie. It takes a lot of the magic out of this movie.

Then again you also have to consider that a lot of the special effects of the late 70s are still intact. These effects are quite impressive especially when you consider what they had to work with. To think almost 50 years later we're still gushing over this film is pretty amazing.

The characters are still all as charming as they were when I saw this movie way back when but I start to notice weird nuances that I never noticed before. For example Leia for some reason turns on and off some sort of transatlantic old school movie accent. I couldn't help but laugh at some of these moments because they often felt weird for the particular scenes she does this in.

The bar for special effect movies have shot through the roof and for this movie to still be able to stand the test of time is quite impressive. For me it kid of falters a little because of the fact that I've been spoiled by today's technological advances. I have to focus more on the story in this case and if I'm being perfectly honest it's kind of hokey and a little all over the place.

Overall, I still had an okay time especially closer to the end of the movie but it didn't resonate as well now in my old age and in this modern age. It's really unfortunate because I remember loving this movie. I really wanted to keep loving it but I couldn't. That's why I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. I cannot recommend this movie to just anyone. A lot of the love for this movie comes from nostalgia.