No, I am not calling it A New Hope

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2015)

Now with the kinda enormously anticipated Force Awakens premiering this Friday, I decided to chat about the film that started it all, Star Wars from 1977. And even though I very much enjoy this movie, I will not shy away from the flaws. Anyways lets blastoff!!! (Yes that was corny, but I'm in the mood right now so shut up.)
So first thing I want to talk about is the story. The story of a young farm boy being sent on a quest to save the princess and the galaxy from an evil overlord. While the story isn't anything new compared to today's science fiction films, it does have a timeless feel in how its presented. Its also pretty interesting the fact that the story took inspiration from old samurai films.
The characters are probably the most iconic thing about this film, besides maybe the story or soundtrack (which is freaking excellent by the way.) We all know them, the whiny Luke Skywalker who learns to mature, the wise old Obi-Wan Kenobi, the awesome Han Solo, the strong and determined Leia, the sinister yet captivating Darth Vader, the.Chewbacca, every character is instantly recognizable and you remember them all. Though one thing I should point out is while the characters are good, the acting at times could be pretty bad. Not all of them, Alec Guinness is great as Obi-Wan, but some of the others aren't all that great.
One other thing about this film that is iconic are the effects. When they were making Star Wars they actually had a pretty small budget, which is more amazing when you think about how revolutionary these effects were, they were so revolutionary that this film practically created CGI with the blaster and light saber effects. Even though not all of the effects hold up today, there are still some really good effects considering nowadays. Even the some of the hokey effects I can forgive since the movie's budget was pretty constrained.
Even though, like I said before, I do enjoy this movie, I do have some issues. One thing I talked about already was the acting. Another thing is that looking back at it, the first 20 to 30 minutes of the movie are really slow, and this might be just because I am used to movies having a more faster paced story, but I did feel really uninterested at this point. Also, while I said that the story does feel timeless, it does have a lot of ridiculous moments. A famous example being the Death Star having a small hole that if you shot into would cause it to explode. Also when the fight at the Cantina starts, its just because some guy saw Luke and "didn't like him". And even though the Death Star battle is iconic and entertaining, it is very overblown and cheesy at times.
Even with the flaws I have with it, I do appreciate Star Wars for doing something that hadn't been done before at the time, and in the process created blockbusters and sci-fi films as we know it.
Final Score: 7.5/10