Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope

To some extent, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg shared the ambition to revive old genres for the audiences of a new era. Whereas Spielberg turned those genres on their head (fascination with aliens instead of fear of them), however, Lucas strived to create new variations that would fill contemporary audiences with the same or even more intense wonder and fascination as the old works did for him when he was a boy. Lucas’s updating of old, naïve sci-fi adventure movies like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers resulted in a pure-blooded space opera in which extensive political wrangling is merely a backdrop for a fantastically heroic story set in space. The naïve tale of a young hero who ventures out into the world to rescue a princess stands primarily on the engagingly colourful world of a galaxy far, far away and adventurous escapades – in other words, the same elements with which Lucas’s influences fascinated their audiences. Compared to those earlier films’ naïve special effects, however, Star Wars prides itself on eliciting amazement with revolutionary tricks. That may be one of the reasons that, with the advent of CGI, Lucas painstakingly and repeatedly refined the original trilogy, which, however, nullified the image of Star Wars as a milestone in the historical development of special effects and cinematography. Much gratitude and appreciation thus go to Harmy’s Despecialized Edition, which allows us to again marvel at the original form of all three episodes and appreciate the tremendous leaps in development between the individual instalments. (11/10/2015)

Pleasant adventure that gradually got out of control in the following parts, reaching strongly grand dimensions. Although Lucas relies more on humor and details in the first half rather than on the narrative pace, it is still not very difficult to engage in his game. However, the main part of my admiration lies in the fact that he earned the right to shoot this exactly in 1977. A space fairytale with a wise old man, naive boy, mischievous smuggler, beautiful princess, chatty android, beeping tin can, and most of all, with the best villain in the universe. The most modest installment in the series is ultimately the weakest after years, but despite the noticeable flaws, it still has a huge dose of nostalgia. 70% (06/07/2005)

So I finally got around to the original Star Wars trilogy, which I kept putting off watching. And this may sound like a cliché, but I was incredibly deprived of one of cinema's gems. The iconic theme tune that always accompanies Darth Vader, the exceedingly good and groundbreaking technical workmanship for its time, the perfect work of the makeup and costume designers - this film has more than just that. As a result, having seen all the old Star Wars films, it was this first (fourth) episode that I liked the least, but still above average. In short, a very well made fantastic sci-fi ride not lacking in action and adventure that every lover of these genres should see, and certainly shouldn't wait as long as I did. (21/08/2014)

A film that needs no reviews. As an introduction, it doesn't reach the dramatic heights of the following two episodes, and some elements are bound to feel a little dated, but it's still an exemplary definition of a legend in that fickle and demanding art called cinema. What's more, I feel that the more you watch it, the more the characters and the unique mythology grow on you, so maybe next time it will be worth five stars. (24/12/2015)

It has cardboard models and visual effects made on a shoestring, but this episode is far more impressive than episodes I and II, which are packed with digital effects. This is not nostalgia on my part, but the fact that Lucas has forgotten how to make a good film. If it's true that he wants to cut newly shot scenes with Natalie Portman into the original episodes (nothing against her otherwise), Lucas is done for good. That would be a crime against a legend. (13/04/2003)