Roger Ebert Criticism:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-star-wars-episode-iv-a-new-hope-1977
Pauline Kael Criticism:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2012/05/takes-kael-on-star-wars.html
Adrian Berry Criticism:
Bob Stephens San Francisco Examiner Criticism:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/STAR-WARS-returns-3138872.php
For the most part, the majority of reviews of Star Wars: A New Hope were extremely positive, gushing about the progressive aspects of the film and praising director George Lucas’s use of special effects. Three major expectations that I had going in to viewing Star Wars: A New Hope, (although admittedly not for the first time but the first in a while), were to see special effects that although might be outdated today, were extremely progressive at the time of its release in 1977; to see a world that feverishly played with the line between a possible reality and absolute myth; yet also, to see a movie that may cater towards pleasing the audience more than producing a quality film.
In preparing to watch the movie again, I decided to focus on a few of the points touched on in the reviews. Essentially, I decided to completely reevaluate the movie, and determine its merit based two main criteria: whether even today, the world that Lucas creates still seems like a very possible future reality, and also, whether Lucas seemed to try to accommodate the viewer more than focusing on the art form.
To begin with, aside from some of the seemingly silly droids like R2-D2 and C-3P0, Lucas creates a world that, while so foreign and impossible today, does not seem so unreasonable. From the beautiful set locations to the great acting, all of the worlds, galactic battles, and even the Force, seem like realistic possibilities.
While there are aspects that do seem like future possibilities and contribute to the real, artistic side of the film, there is also a pure joy aspect that Lucas creates with the fantasy world that this is all set in. If everything was too realistic, that is for example, if the Jedi’s were fighting with guns instead of lightsabers, I don’t think that the Star Wars trilogy would have the same cult following that it still has today. In this way, Lucas does indeed lean towards pleasing the viewer, however, he makes it work by choosing specific circumstances in which to do it, i.e. fantastical galactic air battles and of course, lightsabers.