The Skywalker Saga: A New Hope

Now I will outright and say that A New Hope is possibly my favourite Star Wars movie to date, it has some of the most well-known characters, relationships and settings. It’s our first introduction to the wonderful world of Star Wars and the fandom that Gorge Lucas created.

Even if someone doesn’t know much about Star Wars, they’re bound to have seen A New Hope, whether that was when it was first released or whether that be through Disney +.

The movie wastes no time getting into the action, with the opening shot showing us this galactic space battle, done with all practical effects that make me love this movie even more.

I’m a sucker for anything practical effects related, it’s why I love the first Ghostbusters movie as much as I do.

The long shot of the cruiser sliding over the audience's head does an amazing job of scale and shows how big these ships are, how intimidating it is to even be close to one.

We get this brilliant entrance from Darth Vader, with the audience clueless to why all these men are armed and pointing at a door. The red that fills the scene and the intense panic that quickly occurs is amazing, it shows Vader is a big threat without having to say a single word.

The movie balances comic relief and tension effortlessly well, the occasional time C-3PO will get a little annoying, but the action is nonstop to let you notice it.

Speaking of which, the best duo in any movie is R2-D2 and C-3PO. Hands down, there is no competition. And being put into their perspective as we see the rebels fail and the threat of evacuating to an unknown planet is a switch up from what we usually see.

The comedy between the two works so well, and even though the audience doesn’t understand R2-D2, C-3PO is there to give enough context clues.

A New Hope introduces us to Luke Skywalker, the main character of the trilogy. It gives us plenty of time to get to know him, his thoughts and opinions and his fascination with the greater universe.

I love Luke, he’s such a simple character in this movie and it really pays off. He’s heroic but not effortlessly like Han Solo, you can tell he overthinks situations, he panics like anyone else would do; if it weren’t for the fact that the kids magical, he’d be really relatable.

A scene that really stands out to me in this movie is when Luke is looking over the horizon of Tatooine, the two suns setting in front of him. The lighting is all bright yellows and deep reds, and then we get this marvellous theme that plays overtop.

Luke’s theme is constantly used throughout the franchise, it makes appearances all over the prequel trilogy and will no doubt be in the sequels too. To me, it only rivals The Mandalorians’ theme as it’s just that good.

It has such stoicism and hope embedded within it, whenever I hear it, I know that whatever it is that is happening will all work out.

The story itself is interesting, especially compared to today's standards. Even though it is evidently a sci-fi movie, it gives off vibes of spy movies and thrillers.

The whole plot of the movie is to find and retrieve the Death Star plans and rescue the princess, so far feels like a spy movie. You may not see James Bond dressing up as a Stormtrooper but it's still a disguise.

The thriller aspects come from the way Darth Vader is presented, this cold, calculating killer who holds no emotion and gets the job done. All of his scenes show him in control, show him casting this blanket of fear over others.

Han and Leia are the couple of the century, compared with my complaints of Anakin and Padme’s relationship, this feels way more natural.

Even though the characters bicker all the time, you do get a sense of actual love conveyed through the yelling. Where I felt that Hayden Christian and Natalie Portman had no on-screen chemistry, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford really knock it out of the park.

They make it feel like they’ve known each other for years and not for a few days. Now I won’t say it’s a great relationship by all means, but you do get the sense that they love each other and it’s a couple that I could actually see being real.

Old Ben Kenobi, though not in the movie for long, does a great job at setting up Luke’s ark and pushing the character forward.

If I had one complaint about the prequels, it would be that there was nothing pushing Anakin to be a Jedi; he was just told to do it. Revenge of the Sith takes this a step further and has Anakin join the dark side to save Padme, but that’s it.

With A New Hope, Obi-Wan pushes Luke to travel beyond the star, he tells him all these amazing stories and gives him a reason, a motivation to leave. We also get that same motivation when Obi-Wan is slain by Darth Vader.

Now I will say, even without watching the prequels, the fight between Vader and Kenobi kind of...sucked.

Sure, he’s an old man, but so is Yoda. Sure, if he didn’t die there would be no way to push Luke further.

But did his death have to be so pathetic?

Give me a cool lightsaber fight, especially since it’s the first big fight of the movie with two force-users involved.

The action, though great, is a little slow. The swinging of the lightsabers just makes them look more heavy than actually useable.

The backgrounds and settings in this movie are everything, nothing is clean and bright unless it’s coming from people of wealth. Everything is dark and dingy, metal is covered in rust, bricks are crumbling apart; it really looks like everything in the galaxy is worn.

There is so much I could say about this movie and why it’s my favourite, the cinematography is beautiful, the costumes are stunning, the dialogue is funny and the characters are fun.

For the first Star Wars movie, they started damn well, and the trend continues with The Empire Strikes Back.

Star Wars A New Hope gets 4 out of 5 power converters from me.

A New Hope is streaming on Disney +.