A long time ago in a decade without CGI...

Rating: 9/10 (6 October 2008)

When I first watched this in the cinema I was ten, it was 1977 and I'd never seen anything like it. It had me gripped from the start when a small spacecraft flew past being fired upon by another much larger one that was so big that it seemed to take ages to pass over the viewer. Unlike the recent prequels scenes such as this weren't cluttered with excessive CGI activity but instead showed what was needed in a way that hadn't been seen before. The special effects used throughout the film were ground-breaking for the time and still look great to this day, there is something more real looking about the models used when compared to today's CGI.
The main character are all interesting and likable and the acting was all pretty good both from veteran actors like Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing who brought a suitable gravitas to the film and from younger actors Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher who brought a sense of youthful energy.
In the unlikely event that somebody doesn't know what the film is about I'll give a brief synopsis; Set in a distant galaxy the forces of the evil galactic empire are hunting down the rebels who are attempting to restore the old republic. They are about to capture a rebel ship which has the stolen plans to the empires latest weapon, the Death Star, when they are hidden in a small robot (droid) by the name of R2-D2 by Princess Leah, he escapes in one of the ships escape pods along with his companion C3PO. They escape to the desert world of Tatooine where they are swiftly captured by strange creatures called Jawas who sell the pair to a farmer who gets his nephew Luke to clean them. While doing so he stumbles across a holographic message addressed to one Obi-Wan Kenobi. While Luke is off having his dinner R2-D2 escapes seeking Obi Wan.
The next day Luke sets off to find him but shortly after doing so he is ambushed by Sand People who start ransacking his vehicle till they are disturbed by a robed figure who turns out to be Obi-Wan. He explains to Luke that he was once a Jedi knight and friend of his late father who had been killed by another Jedi called Darth Vader who had turned to the dark side of the force, they also see the full message that R2 is carrying which requests that Obi-Wan takes R2 to the planet Alderaan to get the plans to the rebels. While this is happening Vader who is on the ship searching for the plans dispatches troops to search for the two missing droids. By the time Luke returns home it is too late, the place is a burn out ruin and his aunt and uncle are dead. He decides that he will join Obi-Wan on his mission to Alderaan.
They hire a ship, called the Millennium Falcon, from a smuggler called Han Solo who needs the money to pay off a debt and avoid the various bounty hunter who are after him. When they arrive at Alderaan they find it is no longer there, it has in fact been destroyed by the Death Star in an attempt to get Princess Leah to tell them where the rebels are based. Soon after arriving the Millennium Falcon is captured after it goes to investigate a small moon that turns out to be the Death Star. While Obi-Wan is off trying to disable the tractor beam that captured them Han and Luke discover that Princess Leah is being held in the detention area and set off to rescue her... I won't say any more as I don't want to spoil the ending.
I think this is a film every body should see at least once, it might not be perfect but if it wasn't for this recent cinematic history would be quite different; it kick-started a revival in science fiction that lead to things like Battlestar Galactica, the return of Star Trek and Alien and was possibly the first "block-buster" film. In many ways it was more than just a film it was an event; everybody at my school was talking about it and little else, till one watched it you were completely out of the loop. The characters and there adventures in this and the other films in the franchise have become part of modern folklore.
These comments were made based on the video released in the '80s... so no extra CGI and Greedo didn't even attempt to fire before Han killed him.