Thinking back to the films that define my generation; I recall queuing round the cinema as an excited 10 year old for two hours waiting to see this film. I wonder how many people could say that they have done that in the last 20 years? This film is a truly groundbreaking piece of formative cinema. Leaving aside the magnificent special effects; this is a film about good and evil; empire, freedom and democracy and of their true characterisations. It has a slightly stilted script (particularly from Sir Alec Guinness) but that is more than offset by a fabulous John Williams' score and the hugely engaging performances of Hamill, Fisher and Ford with undoubtedly the best baddie cinema has ever seen in "Darth Vader". Truly a wonderful watch.

Everyone and their mother is going to write reviews about the Star Wars movies...and this one, this one actually came out before I was born. It breaks the heart. I had to wait until the re-release before I got to see this one on the big screen. This is the one that ruined my Star Wars opening night streak... ...Well The Force Awakens ALMOST ruined it further. I had to drive out to my parents house just to see it, for the sake of tradition, and when I got there they had already gone without me...twice. Some angry words later and I guilted my mom, pointing out the drive, to force her into a third go. But that is neither here nor there. This was the movie that started it all. And the first time I saw it, it was on Beta. Once upon a time my family had the movie in Beta. And then I had the trilogy in VHS. And then I had it on DVD. And it is going to repeat like that as the mediums change. Its one of those movies that you have to own, even as technology changes. It is actually one of those movies you want to buy right away when the technology changes, just to see it in better and better quality. That should be saying something right there. But for a lot of you its not. For the rest of you, it is a fairy tale in space, complete with knights and old wizards and a princess. Only its a fairy tale in space made for, well, made for nerds like me. It is a legend and the type of legend that stays with people and makes old Gen-Xers like me, cynical and grumpy, feel like little kids again. It, along with the Godfather, is the type of movie that breeds mental spousal abuse as generations of men force their wives at gunpoint to watch them...and then get confused and a little depressed when most of them don't see the fascination with them. Unlike the Godfather, however, its the movie that fathers force their children to watch and, then, their children carry the love for it into the next generation. Star Wars is an endless cycle, even the bad ones are good. And the fans create endless theories about them. They buy the t-shirts, the buy the toys, they do everything they can to preserve that love and pass it on. A New Hope, this is the film that started all of that, and though there are better installments, this will always be the first.

A quality start to the franchise. I say start, I guess that depends on the (seemingly) controversial way of watching these films - I've decided on release order, so it's the beginning for me anyway. I've heard a lot about <em>'Star Wars'</em> so I am expecting big things, this didn't disappoint whatsoever. I unquestionably enjoyed this! If I didn't know this was released in 1977 I would never have guessed, it still holds up astonishingly well. The special effects are spectacular for the vast, vast majority; even the stuff that perhaps hasn't aged as supremely still looks superb. The cast are a joy. I actually wouldn't say any performance sensationally stood out, but all the actors and all the characters are so much fun to watch together. Mark Hamill is impressive as Luke, Harrison Ford is entertaining as Han and Carrie Fisher is super as Leia. Credit also to James Earl Jones and Alec Guinness, among others. Despite not watching until now, I literally already knew all of the character names - shows how timeless these are. The plot makes for top notch viewing, I found the pacing to be particularly spot on. And how about that score? Stupendous! I really have no negatives for this, I'm sure it isn't perfect but I had a very fun time with it.