Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Star Wars Episode 4 - A New Hope

There are some movies that, no matter how old they are, find an almost eternal place in pop culture. Star Wars is one such movie. I have heard a million times over about the awesome-ness that is Star Wars through a cousin and also through references in various TV series and movies.

Case in point:

1. F.R.I.E.N.D.S : The One With The Princess Leia Fantasy.
2. How I Met Your Mother : Barney's Storm Trooper, Ted Moseby's frequent OD'ing on Star Wars trivia.
3. That 70s Show : Eric Foreman: "I feel like I'm Luke Skywalker, you know".
Eric Foreman : "I'm here to rescue you!"
And of course, his frequent Luke Skywalker moments.





So I took the task upon myself and decided to watch Star Wars from the beginning. There are many different ways of watching the movies. The top two being in chronological order or episode wise.

I decided to watch it in chronological order.





STAR WARS (1977)
Director : George Lucas

Star Wars is a typical case of good vs evil. In the context of this particular galaxy, far far away, its the dark side vs the umm bright side? Yes. So what I understand from the movie is that Darth Vader and his evil buddies want to take over the galaxy and destroy the revolution that is out to kill them. Through some chance of luck, the fate of the galaxy lies in the hands of Luke Skywalker, an almost pre-pubescent looking Jedi wannabe.

Luke Skywalker lives and works with his uncle Owen who lies to him about his father's death and this Obi-Wan Kenobi person. Instead, he could have told Luke the truth and saved himself from being murdered by the Storm Troopers. But I guess he wanted Luke to slog in his farm more.
Stupid uncle Owen.

So, as of now Luke's relatives are dead and all he is left with is Obi-Wan Kenobi, this golden robot whose name I do not know and R2 which is another mini robot that reminds me of Wall-e. Now Princess Leia, before being captured by Darth Vader's minions fed some super secret design blah blah Death Star blah blah into the chip of R2. Now since the the R2 hangs out with Luke, the Storm Troopers are after him and he has to go destroy the Death Star. Coming to think of it, it sounds a bit like Frodo Baggins and the ring and how the task of destroying the ring in Mount Doom is upon him.
Rip off!
Okay, too soon to judge.

Now this Obi Wan Kenobi is kind of like what Gandalf was to Frodo. You know, mentor, guide, faith restorer, etc etc. So now Obi Wan needs to get Luke into a space ship type of thing so he gets in touch with Han Solo, a very young Harrison Ford with a lot of chest hair. Han Solo's best bud is Chewbacca, which is a weird bear like animal that keeps howling. Actually its something like a cross between a bear and King Kong. So now everybody is aboard the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's ship. Personally, I think the Millennium Falcon is such a cool name.

As they are flying in outer space, Darth Vader's space station, Death Star has some kind of magnetic field that attracts the Millennium Falcon and it ends up right inside Darth Vader's lair. Somehow they escape without being seen and Obi Wan goes to deactivate the magnetic field thing. Meanwhile, Luke, who has a huge crush on Leia finds that she is in the dungeons and sets out with Solo to bust her out. It is a disappointment that in the fights that followed Luke uses the Storm Trooper's gun instead on the Lightsaber. So Luke goes to Leia's prison cell and is all, "I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you!" (I just have to say, Eric Foreman says this line way better).




Note: Princess Leia's one of a kind hair style and Harrison Ford's trademark emotion.



Anyways, as Luke and his entourage are running to the Millennium Falcon to escape he sees Darth Vader in a duel with Obi Wan. It looks like Obi Wan is killed but he isn't, he just disappears. Again, this is somewhat similar to the part in Lord Of The Rings - The Fellowship Of The Rings where at the bridge of Moria we think Gandalf is killed by a Balrog but he returns in The Two Towers. I believe Obi Wan will return in The Empire Strikes Back.

Luke and his friends now return back to what I assume is Princess Leia's planet because she is very well received there. The design blah blah of the Death Star is studied and all the Jedi Knights including Luke, who has successfully made it, prepare to blow up Darth Vader's home sweet home.

Around six ships are sent in and obviously all the pilots get killed except Luke. Duh. Darth Vader escapes from the Death Star and Luke manages to blow it up. He returns back super happy and super sweaty. The Princess awards both Luke and Han Solo what I think are medals for bravery. Although Luke has a crush on Leia I think Han Solo might have a thing for her too.
Chewbacca howls.
Credits roll.
The End.

This movie exceeded my expectations. I though it would be really boring and mind numbing but it was fun and it kinda sticks to you even if you don't love it all that much. One thing I really do love is the music when the essay type thing rolls in space.

And Ooooh! Lightsabers!! I would become a Jedi Knight in a jiffy if I could have one of those bad boys.

Favorite Quotes:

Darth Vader: Obi-wan *is* here. The Force is with him.

Darth Vader: I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now *I* am the master.
Obi-Wan: Only a master of evil, Darth.

Princess Leia: Someone has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute, fly boy.

Obi-Wan: Use the Force, Luke.

4 comments:

Jil Jil Ramamani said...

Your summary is now going to be the sparknotes version of star wars! Cheers!

Zarine Mohideen said...

Ha ha thanks!
:)

Davin said...

lol!!! nice review!

Zarine Mohideen said...

Thank you Dav :)