STAR WARS (1977)

STAR WARS (1977)


So I am a Star Wars fan, in the sense that I have seen every movie in the theaters, and saw this one when I was 4. So that tells you right there how old I am. I am not a Star Wars fan in the sense that I feel like JJ Abrams stole my childhood and that Disney is trying to ruin my little Star Wars world. Anyway, because George Lucas the creator of Star Wars had a big giant story to tell, he started the series with Episode 4, then promptly went on vacation to Hawaii expecting the movie to bomb. It’d didn’t, and the rest is history. You can tell Lucas had a lot to say because even Star Wars mentions the fall of Darth Vader and the Clone Wars which Lucasfilm has managed to make into a 7 season animated series.

Anyway this episode starts off with a bit of a bang where Princess Leia’s (played by Carrie Fisher) ship is boarded by Darth Vader (one of the most famous movie villains of all time) and she has to send plans for the Death Star (a planet killing battle station that kind resembles a disco globe in space only without the mirrors) with two droids (robots) that end up landing on a planet where Ben Kenobi (played by Alec Guinness) has been hiding out since the last days of the Jedi order it seems? I don’t know. If you watch just the movies, that’s how they make it seem like it goes down. Luke (played by Mark Hamill) whines a lot and the next thing you know they team up with Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford) and a walking carpet (Peter Mayhew) and bam…movie history.

Theatrically as a kid this thing was epic. I could stare at R2D2 and C3PO roaming through the desert for hours just fascinated.  Having said that, while most of this movie does hold up, it feels very slow compared to most other installments. Aside from EMPIRE STRKES BACK, which for some reason starts with a climactic battle, then fizzles out for the rest of the movie. The acting is superb for the most part given its day and once Luke stops whining about everything. I just watched this thing about 3 or 4 nights ago and still to this day enjoy it very much. It does lack the dialog of some of the newer movies and definitely could have used something else happening between droids landing on Tatooine and the trash compactor scene. Well, I guess we do find out that Anakin did a pretty crap job at getting rid of the sand people, because they are everywhere in this thing. Having said that, none of this stopped me from getting every damn Star Wars toy I could get my hand on in the 70’s and 80’s. Overall I give Star Wars a 5 out of 7. You would think a classic like this would rate higher, but to be honest, if the sequels hadn’t come out, it would have been one of those movies I watched every 5 years rather than once or twice a year.

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