May be my least favorite of the six but still a classic

Rating: 10/10 (5 June 2005)

This movie has definitely changed the way movies were made. Sure this was my least favorite of the six, but if it wasn't for this movie, the other five would never have been made. Maybe because I have grown up during this era is the reason why I kind of enjoy the prequels a little better than the originals, but I'm pretty sure if they had done Episodes IV, V, and VI during this era that they would have been better than the prequels.
There were only a few things that I didn't like about this movie. First the lightsabre battle was to slow and to short. Yeah I know you are thinking that because the effects have gotten better over the years that they have improved the light sabre battles too, but come on, if you look at the lightsabre battles in "Empire" and "Jedi", which were made only 3-6 years after, they were twice as good as A New Hope. Another thing that I didn't like about this movie was the fact the Moff Tarkin was bossing around Darth Vader when Vader is a freaking Sith Lord. Darth Vader is the greatest movie villain of all time and Tarkin is bossing him around? Give me a break, you can't just do that to Darth Vader. The last thing I did not like about the movie was the pacing after the space battle at the beginning of the movie. After the space battle happens, the movie kind of gets slow, but I guess this gap in the movie was needed to tell the story.
Other than those things the movie was great. I loved the WWII style fight scene where Han and Luke use those space guns on the Millennium Falcon. Han Solo is probably the second best movie character of all time, next to Darth Vader and Harrison Ford was definitely the best pick to play him. The storytelling is flat out amazing and the final space battle still remains one of the greatest action sequences of all time. The effects for its time period were definitely the best and they get a 9/10.
I know a lot of people were disappointed with The Phantom Menace but it still beats out A New Hope. However I do understand why people living during this time period enjoyed this movie more than the prequels. Maybe if I was alive in 1977 this movie would be better than The Phantom Menace, but I can't say that now. However this is a phenomenal movie.