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

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Written and Directed by George Lucas

(Version reviewed is the blu-ray from Star Wars: The Complete Saga)

Episode IV picks up shortly after the end of Rogue One as Princess Leia attempts to pick up Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine to enlist his help against the Empire. Of course her Big Papi, Darth Vader, is pissed and wants his Death Star technical plans back. C3PO and R2D2 eject themselves on to the planet's surface and meet pretty boy Luke Skywalker, layabout and future dead end dreamer. Luke soon is rescued the by a chubby dude with a big belt, a toupee, and a light stick. Their quest is to get the plans to Alderaan. Lovable rogue and furry rug join in the shenanigans along with a Peter Cushing that looks more dead than his cg copy in Rogue One.

The thing about watching this again after a couple of years is the worn look of the characters and of all the tech. . Their hair gets messed up. When Obi-Wan takes off his hood, sometimes his hair poofs up. Han's hair blows in the wind. Leia's hamburger buns sometimes become out of whack. Tarkin's fine hairs stick out in resistance to his pomade. This is in contrast to the prequels where nobody ever sweated and every hair was sprayed in place. Lucas didn't have time to edit out every little imperfection with a computer program and I loved it.

All the ships and droids are beaten and scratched up. 3PO even has a DENT in his head! The reality of it all really takes my breath away. With the prequels, most of the time I'm trying to figure out if the actor is real or cg. Hell, sometimes I'm even wondering if the GROUND they're walking on is real! Lucas started doing "superedits" where he would take actors and transport them into scenes they weren't even in. To me, the Phantom Menace wasn't so bad, but it really got over the top in the next two movies.

The sad aspect of A New Hope is that both Lucases, the hungry and artistically inclined young version, and the old one that was more interested in merchandising and the technical aspect of filmmaking both exist in this special edition version of the movie. So it causes an even greater disparity between the gifted director he could have been and the spiritless special effects geek he became.

There are great shots in Episode 4 that have become iconic. Luke looking at the twin setting suns. The dismembered light sabered arm. Luke's first flabbergasted look at Leia (kinda creepy later on). Theres a lot of experimentation with the camera, editing, and lighting in this first movie. You could tell Lucas was at the top of his game and had to focus a bit more on the story rather than the effects because he didn't have the limitless budget of a computer. A shot that really stood out to me this time around was when Luke and Han and Chewie are on the elevator going to the detention block, when the door opens, they both look really confused like they didn't know which way the door was going to open and they're so close to the camera they almost bump into it. I LOVED it. In the prequels you felt as if all the characters were moving along preordained lines, even down to the actual physical steps they were taking. I just feel if Lucas had stayed in directing, he would have made some real masterpieces instead of being the film equivalent of Frank Herbert, who only wrote one great book.

Carrie Fisher was a bit more snarky than I remembered, but I liked it. She was on the top of her game and carried herself with a lot of confidence and it was really funny how much she made fun of Han. Back when I saw the movie for the first time I didn't see her as a "woman" like you have to do these days. She was just another hero to me. Equal or even stronger than the other two male leads.

And while I'm on that, Harrison Ford basically just phoned in his performance on this movie. Same as Natalie Portman in the prequels. It's like he got up, took a piss, and showed up for that day's shooting. His acting is atrocious. It got better in Empire but that was about the only Star Wars film that he seemed to want to be in. Even in Episode 7, he just showed up for his own sendoff to where he wouldn't have to mess with the character anymore.

The last thing I wanted to mention is how dated and sloppy the "enhanced" scenes are in 2017. They look really cheap, out of place, and cluttered. Especially the scenes in the Mos Eisley spaceport. You see some jawas trying to control a large beast and the movements of the cg actors are so unnatural and there's even a really bad blurring effect. Lucas added in random people walking in the backgrounds that look like ghosts from another movie. What signals the depths of his artistic poverty is to have creatures and robots passing in the foreground that block the entire action of the shot just to say he added something to it. And lets not even discuss the pathetic Jabba the Hut scene and Boba Fett breaking the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera in a "look at me" shot. It got so bad that I started to call my friend who owns the dvd of the original cut but I didn't. Hopefully, Disney will put those out some day. Seems like the 40th anniversary would have been a good time.

I will be rewatching episodes 5 & 6 this weekend so hope to have a review for those up in the next couple of days. I'm going to see The Last Jedi a week from today so will also be watching Episode 7 on Friday to get ready.

My Grade: A-