Star Wars is an incredible series of sci-fi films with the first movie: A New Hope (the original star wars) being made nearly 50 years ago in 1977, and the newest movies being made 50 years later in modern times. Some may say that the movies look bad, and that the explosions look like someone photoshopped them in, but these classic space adventure movies were top notch for their time. Audiences around America loved them and they still do, 50 years later.
Episode IV: A New Hope.
This movie is the first in the Star Wars series, Even though it was the 1st Star Wars movie produced it still is the 4th one because George Lucas, the film’s creator, decided to make 3 prequels that gave more backstory to the movies.
In A New Hope we follow our heroes Luke Skywalker, (Obi wan) Ben Kenobi, Princess Leia, and Han Solo and his Wookie co-pilot Chewbacca, on a journey with the Rebel forces to destroy the Galactic Empires Moon sized planet destroying space station, the Death Star. We open the movie with a battle between a rebel frigate and an ISD (Imperial star destroyer). Onboard the frigate is Princess Leia who possesses the secret plans to a planet destroying space station called the Death Star. The ISD catches the frigate and the fierce sith called Darth Vader and a company of stormtroopers board the frigate. The elite stormtroopers take over the ship quickly and Princess Leia quickly hides the plans in 2 droids and shoots the escape pod with the droids down to the planet Tatooine. Our main character, Luke Skywalker is a boy living on the desert planet of Tatooine with his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. He finds out that the droids his uncle bought were hiding a secret message from Princess Leia. He ran into hermit Ben Kenobi who took Luke and the droids on a ship Piloted by Han Solo and Chewbacca. While heading to the planet Alderan, the Death Star tests its destructive power on the planet and blows it into an asteroid field. Luke and the gang arrive at the debris field of Alderan and are sucked into a tractor beam, pulling them onto the Death Star. Han and Luke disguise as stormtroopers and sneak to the detention level to rescue Princess Leia , while Obi Wan goes to deactivate the tractor beam. Han and Luke rescue princess Leia and manage to get into the ship when Obi Wan walks into view dueling Darth Vader with their lightsabers. Vader strikes Obi Wan down and he disappears from his cloak while the others escape the Death Star. They arrived at the rebel base with the Death Star plans and launched an attack. The rebels make the famous Death Star trench run where Luke needed to shoot a pair of proton torpedoes in an impossibly small thermal exhaust port. Luke manages to shoot the proton torpedoes down a thermal exhaust port. The Death Star blew into a giant ball of flame as our rebel heroes flew away in triumph. Back at the rebel base, Princess Leia awarded luke, and Han metals for their great completion of the mission. And there the movie ends with our heroes victorious.
This is a great movie with a classic old aesthetic but the theme of a modern space movie, overall it is decently appealing to the eye (this was 1977, cut the movie some slack) and has a well written story. The series definitely makes sense when you watch the prequels first, it just provides essential information and a solid backstory. I highly recommend this movie and series in general, great for action movie lovers and a classic American film.