Irritating, self-important, dated, with some bright moments

Rating: 4/10 (9 March 2001)

Listening to the sound of fingernails screeching on a chalkboard is soothing compared to watching this movie. From James Earl Jones' surprisingly flat and uninteresting Darth Vader to Carrie Fisher's sticky bun haired Princess Leia, the main actors in this movie deliver strictly second rate performances, except for Alec Guinness, who does his best with a script that seems to have been written by a 14 year old fantasy gamer.
The special effects started a trend which has never been broken, of ignoring physics and engineering in favor of cheap thrills and easy effects so scriptwriters don't have to think about reality and can simply transfer scenes from westerns and other shoot-em ups into "space".
The non-earthlings were the best part of this movie, creatively done, with the deservedly famous bar scene being the film's shining moment.