War of the Stars

Rating: 10/10 (9 June 2004)

The one that started it all...
Spunky Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) is captured by the evil, satanic bastard known as Darth Vader (body of British weight lifting champion David Prowse, also the same man who trained Christopher Reeve for 1978's "Superman - the Movie"; voice of James Earl Jones) and exposed as a traitor to the evil empire that has enslaved the galaxy and is challenged by a heroic Rebellion. Two of Leia's robots, the hapless C-3P0 (Anthony Daniels) and the handy R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) escape the ship and crash land on the desert wasteland planet known as Tatioone. After being captured by Jawas (Hobbit like people who wear cloaks) and traded to a farmer known as Owen Lars, his wife Beru and their nephew Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, the future voice of the Joker). Luke is a callow youth who would like nothing more than to leave Tatioone and find adventure in the universe, then he stumbles upon a message in R2 from Leia asking for the help of an Obi-Wan Kenobi, AKA: Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness). Luke doesn't know anyone named Obi-Wan Kenobi but he knows a strange old hermit man named Ben Kenobi but is unaware that Obi-Wan & Ben are the same man. When R2 sneaks off in the night, Luke and 3P0 chase him down in the day and are attacked by Sand People AKA: Tusken Raiders. When the Sand People try to raid Luke's hover-car, they are scared off by Ben Kenobi, who reveals himself to Luke to be Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke tells him that R2 claims to be his property and has a message for him. Obi-Wan checks out the message and we find out that he was once a great Jedi Knight and that he was a friend of Luke's father, the late Anakin Skywalker, who was also a great Jedi Knight but one who, as far as Luke knows died of mysterious circumstances; actually, according to Obi-Wan, Anakin was murdered by O's former pupil, "a young Jedi named Darth Vader." Luke, however, has yet to discover the horrible truth behind it all... well, Luke is later persuaded to help Obi-Wan and study the way of the Force, which is what gives a Jedi his power (it helps that the Imperial Storm Troopers mutilated his aunt and uncle while he was out). Luke, Obi-Wan and the robots head off to Mos Eisly space port where they join forces with rogue pilot Han Solo (Harrison Ford in the role that made him a star) and his wookie companion Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). Though they're supposed to go the planet of Alderaan, they are intercepted by the Death Star, a giant space station orb that blows planets up real good and was responsible for the destroying Alderaan before our heroes could get there. Once on board the Death Star, our heroes rescue Princess Leia and get into all sorts of hijinx that will change their lives forever.
Obi-Wan is tragically killed in a duel with his former student, Darth Vader. In the rousing finale, Luke, Han and Chewbacca become big time heroes for destroying the Death Star. The adventure, however, is only beginning.
Well acted, great special effects in both the original theatrical version and the over done special edition, the classic "Star Wars" trilogy is a masterpiece that, for better or worse, helped usher in the age of the blockbuster. Well acted all around by Mark, Harry (as in Harrison Ford), Carrie, Alec and Peter Cushing (as the other villain), but Ford steals the show as Han Solo, the great Rapscallion of the Universe.
"You're all clear kid now let's blow this thing and go home!" - Han Solo