Star Wars

60 “Use the Force, Luke. Let go.” A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away…An applicable motion picture had caught my eye. As you may have already scrutinized by the title of the movie above this review and the aforementioned quote, my words tend to describe the film ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’, released in the distant year of 1977. Whose human mind could have possibly produced any living idea of what this film would eventually become and the influence it had had on modern cinema and the sci-fi genre? Presumably, only a few individuals’. The pure uniqueness this movie had demonstrated throughout various creatures, designs, characters, visuals, special effects is colossally commendable and unprecedented, generating forever memorable personas like the infamous Darth Vader, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and others. As such, overall, ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ is undeniably a technical masterpiece in itself. Though primarily taking place on a fictional planet called Tatooine, the depicted events unfold on a series of imaginative space objects, including the menacing Death Star, which plays a vital role in the structure of the film’s main conflict and essentially serves as proof of George Lucas’s extreme talent at world-building. However, to my dismay, the ability to comprehend all the minute details and physics of this utter galaxy was beyond me. As to my understanding, a prequel trilogy was released after this, in which I assume more information would be disclosed on the galaxy itself and its origins or rules. Though, I have heard their quality was evidently worse than that of the original movies. Furthermore, the Empire’s motive is not clear. But it is interesting to notice that Lucas’ Empire was based on the principles of fascism, so I guess the conflict’s lack of proper development is explained. That, however, does not take away from the confusing plot and its holes. For example, the absolutely unnecessary sub-plot, involving Skywalker and Princess Leia that did not receive enough attention or screen presence for the audience to properly connect to the characters. Moreover, be it for the time of the release or not, the pace was not great. Finally, in general, ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ does not spend its runtime on exposition at all. The viewers are simply thrown into a whirlpool of events without any explanation (excluding the initial monologue). So, besides the confusing absence of Skywalker’s history or Obi-Wan Kenobi’s, or any of the characters’ for that matter, with the initial ‘iconic’ monologue at the beginning of the movie doing some heavy lifting, the technical aspects of the film are implausible. It contains exceptional cinematography and visuals. I would even put it on par with ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, in terms of cinematography. Little details like the two Suns and stunning character designs fully deserve the praise they constantly get. Moreover, even though the movie was released in 1977, the visual effects manage to hold up to this day very well, indeed. Of course, you cannot possibly ignore the masterfully made and enormous practical sets, such as the Death Star and the Millenium Falcon. To conclude, ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ unfortunately did not impress me as much as I thought it would. More specifically, the storyline was confusing and the characters have not had much depth. Plot holes and unnecessary side stories did not make things better. On the other hand, this heavily contrasts with the technical elements of the film, which are of particularly striking quality. Jaw-dropping cinematography and visuals should leave every viewer impressed. That said, I would not consider the technical side of the movie to make for its writing issues. Overall, ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ left an indelible mark on the movie industry, but I myself did not find it completely flawless, though I am able to comprehend the reasons why this film gets so much praise.