A New Hope left viewers intrigued at the story of Star Wars. By introducing lovable heroes that everyone roots for and despised antagonists, moviegoers flocked to the theaters to see the next installment in the series, The Empire Strikes Back. Episode IV left off with exactly what the title suggests, a new sense of hope for the budding rebellion against a tyrannic galactic empire. Fittingly, Episode V sends new hardships towards our heroes, with many of them being overwhelmed and things taking a turn for the worse. The darker tone of The Empire Strikes Back allows it to explore darker and deeper themes, consequently allowing it to build upon and surpass the quality of A New Hope.

Released 3 years after A New Hope, the movie takes place 3 years after the events of the previous movie, with the Rebel Alliance on the run and having to retreat to a final stronghold on the ice planet of Hoth. Luke’s role in the rebels has clearly grown, as he goes on expeditions to investigate empire probes designed to search planets for rebel bases. Lucas brilliantly uses the beginning of the movie to bring us up to date with how the characters have developed since the previous movie. Luke’s capture by a wampa and his daring escape show that he has developed the confidence and poise necessary to control his Force powers, but his subsequent struggle in the icy cold shows that he hasn’t developed enough for true independence and requires Han to rescue him. Han’s daring rescue and Leia’s worry shows both Han’s bravery and disregard for his own safety and his and Leia’s budding romance.

Luke is really the central focus of this movie, whereas in the previous film it focused more on Han, Leia, and Obi-Wan. Guided by Obi-Wan’s spirit, he goes to the planet Dagobah to receive training from, though he doesn’t realize it at first, former legendary Jedi master, Yoda. It’s truly a shame that CGI hadn’t developed enough to make Yoda appear more genuine, as moviemakers had to settle for an ugly puppet instead. However, Yoda’s quirkiness and odd training methods are an amusing and important part of the film. Yoda doesn’t physically train Luke as much, and this is confusing to Luke at first. That is until he realizes that the power he is searching for is already in him, and that all he has to do is find it. Luke leaves Dagobah realizing his friends are in danger, but takes a false sense of confidence with him.

The confrontation of Luke and Darth Vader is, without any argument, the most iconic scene in any Star Wars movie, and ranks among the best movie scenes of all-time. Luke recklessly believes his still limited training is enough for him to defeat the powerful Darth Vader, and he is immediately humbled by the much more experienced and stronger Force user. Losing a hand to Vader’s crimson blade, Luke retreats, and the most famous line in all of Star Wars is uttered. Vader tells Luke, “I am your father.” The realization that his most hated enemy is in fact his father is too much for Luke, sending him over the edge both physically and mentally. It also pushes him over the edge mentally because of the realization the Ben and Yoda probably knew this information but refused to share it with him.

Luckily, Luke is able to escape, but Han is left in suspended animation and Leia becomes the slave of the ugly creature, Jabba the Hut. Any hope that was gained in the previous movie is swiftly destroyed as the Empire in deeds strikes back with a force and fury never seen before.

The beginning of an epic adventure, A New Hope helps Star Wars burst onto the scene, offering moviegoers an introduction for, though they didn’t know yet, a multi-billion dollar film franchise, video game line, TV series, and pop culture staple for years to come. What I have always enjoyed about Star Wars movies is the opening scroll that tells the backstory to each movie or what happened in between movies. Lucas clearly doesn’t like beating around the bush and developing details bit by bit in the actual screenplay. Rather, he utilizes this opening scroll establish the setting and the current state of affairs. In A New Hope, it foreshadows the main plot conflict, the galactic empire’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star. This short scroll accompanied by the all too familiar Star Wars theme allows the movie to jump right into action.

A New Hope quickly establishes its main characters, rebel leader Princess Leia, young farmer Luke Skywalker, old Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, Empire leader Darth Vader, and smuggler Han Solo. Lucas is efficient, as each character is distinct, likable, and serves a specific purpose in driving the plot forward. Leia and Luke are, though they don’t know it at first, twins, yet because of their respective upbringings, they are nothing alike. Leia has been shaped by her upbringing as a princess, diplomatic, resourceful, and smart. Luke on the other hand is rough around the edges, still discovering who he really is inside, as he has always felt that there was something inside of him that he hasn’t found yet. Obi-Wan, therefore, serves as the mentor Luke needs to discover this thing inside him, an ancient power known as the Force. Darth Vader, as the primary antagonist, is a character that clearly possesses extreme hate and anger and also powerful with the Force. He strikes fear into any viewer and is easy to root against. Finally, rounding out the cast of main characters is Han Solo, who as a rogue space pirate not only drives the plot forward by getting our heroes out of stick situations, but also serves as comic relief during the film’s most intense moments. Han’s character arc is rounded out by his maturation as a result of an attraction towards Princess Leia.

The plot of Episode IV hums along nicely. I love the way Lucas chooses to portray the Force. Rather than have long-winded explanations about what the Force is, Lucas leaves a lot of it unknown for a reason. He reveals the potential and power of the Force bit by bit through the actions of the movie’s force users such as Obi-Wan’s Jedi mind trick, Darth Vader’s use of the Force choke, and Luke’s training blocking lasers with a lightsaber. These all seem like small actions to the audience, and therefore it become feasible and believable that Luke is able to guide a rocket into an exhaust pipe and blow up the entire Death Star. Without the establishment of certain capabilities of using the Force, Luke’s final shot would have seemed like a complete shot in the dark instead of something that displays his true potential as a young Jedi.

Perhaps the most maligned part of Episode IV’s plot is the existence of the exhaust pipe in the first place. How could the Empire be so stupid as to build such a weakness into this supposedly indestructible space station? In fact, Family Guy’s Star Wars spoof hilariously lampoons this point. Star Wars eventually fixes this issue in Rogue One, but looking at the movie by itself, such a glaring plot hole is unacceptable, and adds a negative point to an otherwise brilliant movie.

A fitting beginning to an epic story, A New Hope hits many points of a great movie. It keeps the audience on edge and has everyone looking forward to the future films in the trilogy. However, as the first film, it appropriately leaves many unanswered questions and leaves room for speculation, just one of the many brilliant moves by Lucas in hooking the public to his latest new project.

Last semester, I discussed how my passion for cooking arose and how it shaped me to this day. This semester, I have decided to take my passion blog in a new direction towards another one of my interests: movies, more specifically, the behemoth and powerhouse movie franchise, Star Wars.

Behind the genius of director and writer George Lucas, Star Wars took off with the first movie, Star Wars (later dubbed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) in 1977, followed by The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Return of the Jedi in 1983. Adored by critics and casual moviegoers alike, these three films formed what is known as “the original trilogy,” and Star Wars became embedded into everyday culture. Banking on the popularity of the franchise, Lucas wrote and directed the prequel trilogy, consisting of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith.

At this point, Lucas decided he was finished with the franchise, but Star Wars fans were far from satiated. So Walt Disney Studios bought the franchise and planned a sequel trilogy, starting with The Force Awakens, followed by the recently released The Last Jedi, and culminating with the final unnamed 9th episode. Sprinkled in between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi was the standalone Rogue One, a completely separate “Star Wars story” focusing on a band of new characters and plot.

All in all, the Star Wars movie franchise encompasses 9 feature films. Inevitably, Star Wars fanatics all try to rank the films from best to worse, and this often becomes a topic of contention among moviegoers on which film is the best. Some prefer the classic inspiring storyline of the original trilogy while some prefer the spectacular action of the prequels. Others prefer the fresh take in the sequels while even a select few prefer the very different Rogue One. The universality of Star Wars, in which it resonates with the younger and older generations, makes it so unique in bridging the gap between age groups. I can remember countless times debating family members, friends, or strangers on which film or which characters we like the most.

With the recent release of The Last Jedi, the discussion of which Star Wars film is the best and which is the worst has reemerged. With 9 movies, in my next 9 posts, I plan to rewatch and go through each movie in order of date released, and give my take on each one. I will discuss the good things and bad things about each movie, then give an overall opinion. However, I won’t rank them, because I wish my analysis will only shed light on the issue, and I’m not here to sway people towards one side or another. I hope that each post will motivate the reader to formulate their own opinions on the movie. Hopefully I will be able to offer some new insights that haven’t been discussed in order to further the general debate.

I believe that in order for a movie to be good in my mind, it must be succeed in two several key elements. First and foremost is the plot. A movie must tell a moving story in order to garner my interest and attention. The plot has to make sense, as the accumulation of plot holes is perhaps the number one killer for an otherwise promising concept. Second are the characters. A movie’s characters must drive the plot forward, with decisions by the main characters serving as the main engine for pushing the story forward. Simplicity here is key. When a movie tries to overload the plot with a complex web of characters, it usually suffers. I plan to focus on these two elements in my analysis of the movies.

The prospect of rewatching some of my favorite films is exciting. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts through this next series of blogs.