Star Wars: A New Hope Doesn't Suck.

We're now less than two weeks until the next star wars movie is released, and I feel like I should be more excited than I am.

This may be a good thing though, because I'm trying to go into the experience without high expectations (like I did with the first one). I've also taken a point to avoid what I can of the star wars fandom (aside from my goodreads' buddies).

Therefore, even though this is my personal favorite installment of the Star Wars saga, this is going to be a short entry.

I literally cannot think of a single thing I don't like about it.

If there were no other episodes of Star Wars, I think I would enjoy A New Hope very much in the way many people enjoy "The Princess Bride". It's just a really, really fun movie! I could say it's well paced from a cinematic standpoint: it never gives you the chance to get bored because there's always something happening and something new to look at, and yet it doesn't proceed too fast for the casual viewer to follow along with what's happening. It's funny enough that you can laugh on the first viewing and on the 50th. The settings and characters are all great fun. In short, it's an absolute pleasure to watch from start to finish.

As I've said, even if it never spawned a it's own expansive franchise of entertainment content this would still be a story I would enjoy for it's own inherent value and rewatchability. I can't say that for all the episodes in this saga, I can't even say it for all the episodes in this trilogy; but this one has something special.

The real cinch, I think, that this episode has for most viewers though is the added storytelling dimension you get  after watching the sequels. Watching them makes you wanna go back and watch "A New Hope" again to see how it stands up: to see if the part of the story story is coherent with the rest.

And it is!

Now I will say, I'm skeptical as to how much of this is attributable to expert storytelling vs. the audience's projection.

But I friggin' swear...Alec Guinnes KNOWS his character is lying....

(Wait for it...)

^^ SEE?! SEE!! Look at that body language! 

Those microexpressions!! 

This is the face of a Two-face!!  xD  ;P

I seriously, swear every nuance of his acting just works so perfectly....

I won't deny small even the smallest little snippets of dialogue have gotten over-analyzed by yours truly in the past. This is especially the case with the following:

^^Like, Luke may be The Chosen New Hope, but these guy are basically the galaxies' resident "Regular Joe and Jane" literally discarded after less than 10 minutes of screen time, and I'M STILL DYING TO KNOW THE BACKSTORY FOR THIS CONVERSATION!!!

Is Owen Anakin's brother? Is Beru Anakin's sister?

Maybe Beru's maiden name is "Skywalker...

Maybe "Skywalker" is a name they give to people who leave the planet...

In any case, it's pretty obvious that both these two were pretty close to Anakin during his formative years, and in some measure were eyewitnesses to his ultimate descent. 

^^Or at least that was my line of thinking as a kid, before the prequels were released. Now we know in cinematic cannon it didn't quite work out that way, and I do kinda see that as a fault in storytelling that they couldn't work in these two fantastic characters in a more coherent way. (Although I am intrigued by there thematic significance within the novelizations...but more on that in a future post...)

I guess the best thing about A New Hope is that, more than any of the other star wars episodes, it triggers your imagination and you get to invent backstories for the characters that strike your fancy. And because it doesn't depend or rely on any other content other than what you see and hear on screen, the possibilities are pretty expansive.