Feeling The Force

Rating: 9/10 (9 September 2014)

It is almost unbelievable to think that some people in this universe still haven't seen Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. With the new set of Star Wars films coming out soon, we thought that we'd better enlighten those who have not yet witnessed the splendour of the original Star Wars movie where it all began a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
There's this young guy named Luke Skywalker (a youthful Mark Hamill). He lives with his aunt and uncle on a dusty farm in a backwater part of the galaxy where nothing much ever happens. Then, one lazy day, some dizzy Droids drop in, the sparky R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and pompous C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), who take Luke on a chain of events to meet Ben 'Obi-Wan' Kenobi (an immeasurably brilliant Alec Guiness) to embark on a quest to save Princess Leia (the delectable Carrie Fisher) that involves intergalactic upheaval, fierce starship battles, intense lightsaber fights, old, mystical religions being resurrected, planets being destroyed, some mean ass aliens, such as the kick-ass Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and super cool villains, including Peter Cushing (a malevolently ruthless Grand Moff Tarkin) and the iconic, fearsome Darth Vader (David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones) doing some serious rebel arse-whupping, all blending into a heady mix of space-based mayhem that gives you a maximum adrenaline rush.
What makes the film work, for me at least, is the happy stitching together of various exciting film styles, such as World War II fighter plane films, cowboy movies Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is a typical Wild West gunslinger, and he has the jerkin to prove it!) replete with bar room brawls, swashbuckling knights and castle sword-fighting, which makes for bucketloads of searing adventure, neatly packaged into a shiny science fiction unit.
In Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (by the way, nobody really knows why George Lucas started the series with part IV to be honest, but it probably shows he had aspirations to mass market franchises from the very beginning – very prescient George!) the action is relentless. This is in complete contrast to the newer Episodes I, II and III, where there are far too many laborious scenes at the galactic parliament involving many dull aliens making streams of dreary, unnecessary speeches, or tedious romantic interludes that mostly involve gazing wistfully out of large windows. Avoid all of that nonsense, and the hideously annoying Jar Jar Binks, and watch Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope instead. It's packed full of the best action, the finest space battle sequences, the worst-aiming stormtroopers that any evil empire could ever hope to train, the weirdest robots and oddest aliens, backdrops to die for that are unique and timeless, and a complete film that will get your heartbeat racing and you wanting to sign up to the rebel resistance immediately after watching it. If you haven't seen it yet, use the force and see it now! It rocks! TL-R