Star Wars - Film Review

Forcethon Day VI

Star Wars (or A New Hope, but I call it by it's original title) is directed by George Lucas and stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and the voice of James Earl Jones.

Plot
The Imperial Forces, under orders from Darth Vader (James Earl Jones), hold Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) hostage in their efforts to stop the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), captain of the Millennium Falcon, work together with the companionable droid duo R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) to rescue Leia, help the Rebel Alliance and restore freedom and justice to the Galaxy.

Review
It took six days to get to the original trilogy. After two crappy prequels, an ok animated film, a decent prequel, and a really good standalone film, we're here.

I just wanna get it out of the way, the Special Edition changes. I don't like 'em.

Let's talk about Han Shot First: This was a change made in the special editions in the scene where Han Solo ins confronted by Greedo in the Mos Eisley Cantina. In the 1997 VHS Special Edition (I used to have that), they added in a few frames where Greedo shoots first, misses, then is shot by Han.

This was changed again in the 2004 DVD edition, where it's changed to where Greedo and Han shoot at the same time, Han dodges and kills Greedo.

In the original theatrical version, Greedo never fires.

Han Solo runs into Jabba outside the Millennium Falcon. This scene was filmed for the original theatrical version but was deleted. In it, Jabba was a human played by Declan Mulholland, he was going to be replaced with a stop motion character in post production, but due to time and budget reasons, it was deleted. It was added in the 1997 VHS Special Edition where Jabba is CGI and my god, it looks terrible.

This was changed again in 2004, it still doesn't look very good, but at least it looks better.

There are other bad Special Edition changes for this movie, but those are the ones that really come to mind for me. For more, go watch HelloGreedo's series on the changes on his YouTube channel.

Let's talk about the characters: Luke Skywalker lives on Tatooine, he lives with his aunt and uncle who get murdered by Stormtroopers, he meets Obi-Wan Kenobi and then goes to destroy the Death Star. Mark Hamill does a great job as Luke.

Alec Guinness is great as Obi-Wan. It seems at first that he's just some old hermit, but he's actually a former Jedi Knight who fought alongside Luke's father Anakin, who we later find out to be Darth Vader. He sacrifices himself so Luke, Chewie, Han and Leia could escape the Death Star.

For some reason he never tells Luke that Vader is his father, but Luke's probably better off not knowing that, but couldn't he have told him that Leia is his sister?

Han Solo is an awesome character, he's the best character in the movie. He's awesome, he doesn't take crap from no one, when Leia gives him crap, he just gives it back. He doesn't care about Luke or Leia or the revolution, he's only in it for the money. He also just kills Greedo in cold blood and says "sorry about the mess" and leaves, which is where the Special Editions screw up.

Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) is funny, there's not much too him in this one, he's pretty much the sidekick for Han Solo.

C-3PO and R2-D2 are funny they're pretty much comic relief, C-3PO is paranoid and R2-D2 don't listen to no one.

Carrie Fisher (R.I.P) is great as Princess Leia, she comes off as a bit of your typical "damsel in distress" trope, but that changes over the other two. Obi-Wan is her only hope.

James Earl Jones is amazing as Darth Vader. He's evil, intimidating, cold-blooded, he's awesome. He is the most evil person in the entire galaxy. The prequels kinda ruined him, but Rogue One made up for that.

In conclusion, Star Wars is one of the greatest films ever made, I would recommend watching it, but likely everyone has seen this movie by now.

I just got back from seeing The Disaster Artist so expect a review soon.

10/10

Previous review - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Next review - The Star Wars Holiday Special