First time viewing in 2015

Rating: 7/10 (24 December 2015)

I can imagine that the first Star Wars was impressive for its time, and how it managed to become instant pop culture icons is understandable. For its time. As someone looking back and watching this in 2015, it's certainly a good movie, but it has its laughable moments. The first scene, all the lasers conveniently miss their targets, there are some comedic death scenes (that were not intended to be so) and the aliens are obviously puppets - no ifs ands or buts about it. But despite these goofs in the film making (which you have to remember, this came out in 1977 - but I'm judging it from a 2015 standpoint), it's genuinely a good movie. The plot sets the precedent for the epic saga that will come afterwards. Original, iconic characters like Chewbaca, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Jabba the Hutt are unforgettable. The "childlike" charm of Luke Skywalker and the interplay between the haughty and arrogant Han Solo, as well as as the bantering between droids C3PO and R2D2 give the film enough comedic relief to make a film about galactic civil war more "down to earth." Although I personally enjoyed Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi more, A New Hope is still good and one of the better films in the saga.