A New Hope for the Star Wars Gong

BY SARACH

There has been so much hype about the latest Star Wars, 10 years after the last movie, and of course the ever adorable BB-8 that everybody loves.

But I am an absolute gong about Star Wars. I have friends who are so crazy over it, with lightsabers and the droids and figurines and such, but I have not watched the movie or any of the movies for that matter. I even thought Chewbecca was some ancient urban legend myth about this guy with long furry hair.

Photo: starwars.com

That was all until yesterday…

I watched the first of the films that got released in 1977, which was eventually subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope, from the 2004 DVD re-release. Apparently, I’m also watching in the Machete order (episodes 4, 5, 2, 3, 6, then 7) and was ordered not to Google more about it because there are spoilers.

But let’s just face it, I’m only watching this to get to the end of everything and watch about BB-8, and really play with the droid because I know nothing else about it. NOTHING. Except maybe lightsabers.

Gif: giphy.com

Trust me, up till now, I’m still quite lost about it, but am really excited to watch the rest of the films. So many questions I want to ask: Why did Obi-Wan willingly like let Darth Vader kill him? How does Luke end up being a Jedi? Han Solo ends up with Princess Leia?? How did Luke manage to pick up his lightsaber-ing skills so quickly because I tried to lightsaber with Google and can’t get pass the third stage and gave up (it was really fun, you should try it)?!

Anyway, what really caught my surprise of the movie was the production quality. Top-notch. It was really quite hard to tell that this film is 39-years-old this year,  and even without the added visual effects, it still looks really good. Other than the funky transitions signature to the series, I thought that the effects were really cool and I really liked the part where Luke and Han were trying to fight off the Empire in their spaceship.

The plot was not too bad, though I did get a little lost here and there. I felt that the establishment of the movie at the start was a bit unstable, and I wasn’t quite sure what was going on at first. Why were they being captured and such. However, as the movie went along, I slowly picked up the more familiar characters of Han and Luke Skywalker.

I also really loved how the two main guys were soooo calling dibs on Princess Leia, like it was so obvious they both were falling for her and it was hilarious. Their banter was so funny and she is so pretty. I was like shipping Luke and the Princess at first okay, before I found out what happens later. The cinnamon bun hairstyle was also really a thing.

Of course, not forgetting our robots who brought the whole story to life and saved them from the Empire in the first place! There’s R2-D2, the original droid that everyone fell in love with. It really does have a mind on its own and it’s so cheeky and cute!

Photo: starwars.wikia.com

So now that I do know the basic storyline and characters, and am quite sure I can correctly identify them now, I won’t say I am all in for it. But as a start off to the entire series, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was a good one to shed some light and hope onto this Star Wars Gong. Can’t wait to watch the rest after exams in all honesty, and get the damn theme song out of my head. It’s been stuck there since yesterday.