Review of Star Wars (1977) by Spangle — 08 Jun 2015

Campy, cheesy, and completely overrated, the first entry into the Star Wars saga shocks me that it has any appeal whatsoever. Where to begin really? Well, the film is horrifically written, in particular the dialogue may be some of the worst I have encountered in a long time. However, the dialogue is not all that is wrong with the script. The characters are also terrible. They have no depth, act irrationally, and have no true purpose seemingly. Things just sort of happen and we, as an audience, are forced to accept that it happened and move along. The characters are also greatly annoying, namely Luke Skywalker (who is whiny as all hell), Chewbacca, and Princess Leia. Truly, these characters only serve to ruin the film. The acting, namely from Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, is horrific. The story is poorly told and completely uninteresting. In addition, the action sequences are terribly choreographed and damn near comical with how bad they are.

In spite of these many negatives, there are some positives. For one, C-3PO and R2-D2 are adorable little characters who really make the film. They try their hardest to turn around this lost ship with pretty funny dialogue. The writing is terrible throughout, except for when these two speak. They are truly great. The characters of Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi also piqued my interest. Though their encounter in this film is horrendous (again, that fight scene choreography...cringe), they do seem to have some serious potential. The special effects here are also quite good, especially for 1977 (though other films released around the same time, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Alien, are leagues better in this category). The score is also incredible and deserves the iconic status it has achieved. Finally, the film, though poorly written and directed, did introduce a very interesting world. While I did not enjoy the storyline or most of the characters, the world introduced here is grand in size and packs considerable potential that makes me oddly excited to watch Episodes V and VI. I still have high hopes that this saga will be enjoyed by me, but sadly, Episode IV is so terribly put together for the most part that I can only sit here and be sorely disappointed.