Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) – The classic. It’s actually weird to shift between these films because A New Hope takes its time developing the story and its characters while the prequel trilogy just want to cram and cram and cram like our attention spans are shot. And they are, but that’s beside the point.
3:35AM – Okay, back in the game! Had to knock out a new Giant Bomb video. It definitely feels like almost 4AM, but I must march on! With a new bottle of water at my side, nothing can stop me now!
3:37AM – Episode IV with the original score, broken slightly by age! The opening crawl slightly off-skew! The Tantive IV being chased by a Star Destroyer against a matte painting of Tatooine! Awwww man… I’m home…
3:43AM – Darth Vader is a pimp now! He chokes that rebel to death before he can even answer the dark lord’s question! The film is the cleanest I’ve ever seen it, but I’m not feeling the huge boost in resolution as much as I did with the prequel trilogy. Also: any belches I had about the prequel effects being out of place are outweighed by the fact that these effects are old.
3:49AM – R2 alone down the desert canyon as Jawas look on. The slight jiggle of the handheld camera feels revolutionary at this point compared to the static or computer-controlled shots of the prequels. Notice here there are lots of spans where people aren’t saying things or explaining things. It’s a wonderful place of alien wonder!
3:53AM – We cut to the Imperial detachment searching for our droids and the dewbacks look incredibly out of place, as does virtually all of the CGI here.
3:56AM – The exchange between Luke and Uncle Owen reminds me that the editors won an Academy Award for this film. The dialogue is so natural here. It’s not like sand…
3:59AM – “Who is she? She’s so beautiful!” Luke re: Leia’s projection. The sound mix is weird as they didn’t record enough local audio in each scene, so it bounces in volume. My eyes are starting to fail. I CAN’T FAIL!
4:04AM – Luke scans the desert for R2 and the droids look like RC cars with cute fixtures rather than CGI anthromorphic whatevers. I don’t remember how Obi-wan scared away the Tusken raiders before, but it’s definitely weird now.
4:12AM – It’s so weird watching Obi-wan explain the fall of Luke’s father like it happened decades ago, but I was just there watching it!
4:15AM – All of the politics of the film are fleshed out and shelved in the course of a few sentences. After that? Classic quote after classic quote! “I find your lack of faith disturbing!” “Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed!”
4:18AM – Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, man that’s just messed up.
4:21AM – Awww man, the yawns are coming in.
4:25AM – HAN. SOLO. MILLENNIUM. FALCON. KESSEL RUN. 12 PARSECS. DAMN. More CGI robots and critters that look stapled onto the film. Speaking of which: I don’t even understand why they keep the Han/Jabba scene, they just repeat everything Han told Greedo earlier.
4:34AM – I don’t remember much star streaking when ships jumped to hyperspace in the prequel trilogy!
4:45AM – There’s so much dialogue I’d missed before as a kid that works so great as an adult. Everyone has sideburns and cool helmets here on the Death Star!
4:51AM – It’s so cool how simple this story is. There’s no need to bounce between seven different plotlines or through bombastic CGI shows. The pod race looks like a carnival now.
4:59AM – Everyone down in the garbage chute now, an excellent, suspenseful sequence. That this film had a third the budget of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and was infinitely more imaginative is crazy.
5:07AM – Darth Vader and Obi-wan fight each other for the last time, like old men cautiously waving broomsticks at each other. I feel a second wind coming on here? The yawns are killing me here!
5:13AM – As Luke and Han pound some TIE Fighters in an escaping Millennium Falcon, I realize that the Death Star is really under protected and understaffed. I mean srsly, they let a Corellian freighter out of their grasp!
5:18AM – Watching this guy brief the rebel pilots on the Death Star mission reminds me so much of playing X-Wing as he flanked every briefing detail. There’s also harsh, cool wind kicking up outside the house. I may blow away…
5:21AM – Wedge Antillies looks like a young Steve Jobs of the exact same era. These pilots look like normal people, rather than exaggerated sci-fi action figures.
5:27AM – I have done the Death Star trench run more times than I can count. Does anyone recall any particularly special space battle in the prequel trilogy? That’s right, there isn’t one.
5:37AM – Death Star blows up in disc-based explosion that doesn’t make any sense, Han and Luke get medals for saving the rebellion from utter destruction and, oddly, no glowing plasma lamp ball/trophy thing. What’s going on here? I’m getting smarter about retrieving these discs, though. Bathroom break, then we’re off!
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