I love these movies

Rating: 9/10 (15 January 2006)

This one especially. It all started right here, and despite the cheesy lines and some of the bad effects (even though most of them are pretty incredible, especially for that time), I can't help but love it.
Maybe it's the actors. Because let's face it, these actors were born to play these parts. Mark Hamill never really had another hit, and really, honestly, he's not a very good actor. But he was perfect for this role- some may say he's too whiny, but isn't that really what Luke was at the beginning? The same goes for Carrie Fisher- she never had another big, important movie like these, but I can't imagine the movie without her. Maybe other people can, and that's okay for them, but for me, I can't see anyone else as Leia.
And what would this movie be without Harrison Ford? I have a theory that the reason the newest three Star Wars don't match up at all to the old ones is because the characters aren't interesting at all. Anakin is vaguely interesting, but we already know his story and Hayden Christensen doesn't do anything with the part to keep us intrigued. Amidala is boring, and while I think Ewan McGregor is a great actor, there was nothing he could do to instill anything worth watching into the character they wrote for Obi-Wan.
And that's why these movies need Harrison Ford. Han Solo is without a doubt the most interesting character. In the new ones, there's no one with snappy retorts and sharp comments to keep the pace of the movie up. In the new ones, there's no one to give us the surprise ending we knew was coming but we didn't know how they were going to pull it off. I don't know about anyone else, but when I first saw this, I thought Han had actually left for good. It didn't even occur to me that he would come back to save the day in the end. And I'm not stupid. At least that's what they tell me. And without Harrison Ford, Han Solo would not be near as interesting as he is.
Alec Guinness deserves plenty of credit too. His part is without a doubt the most boring in the movie, yet he makes it worth watching. His lines are usually descriptions, clichés, or they provide backstory. The actors in CSI will tell you that lines like that are hard to make entertaining. Yet Guinness is able to do so with years of training. It's no wonder he was nominated for an Oscar for it.
Oh, and there's the awesome action sequences with the light saber duels that, even though they tend to repeat themselves over and over, are incredibly dazzling. There's the epic feel and the neverending story of it all. There's the beautiful scenery and realistic set pieces. There's James Earl Jones's and Anthony Daniels's respectively foreboding and entertaining voiceovers, with Vader's wonderfully addicting breathing. There's the sweeping cinematography and that even makes the intimate scenes seem big while still retaining the urgency and the, well, intimacy of it all.
It's a good movie.