Matt Wooldridge’s review published on Letterboxd:
The greatest movie I have ever seen is the finest cinematic example of the hero’s journey on a canvas so vast it blew people’s minds in 1977 (the year I was born), and ignited a franchise and multi-platform property that will continue to entertain for decades to come.
This is adventure at its finest. The first act has some slow moments as the droids lead us to the hero of the piece, but once Obi Wan enters the picture, and our heroes enter space, the fun begins.
Hamill, Fisher and Ford are perfectly cast as our heroes, but perhaps the real star of the film is its villain. We meet Darth Vader in the opening scenes and can only marvel at this hulking menace in a bizarre samurai influenced robot suit. We get to know him better in the sequel, but here, he’s the man who murdered Luke’s father, and is the only one who can stop Luke, the new hope of the title, in the final minutes of the film - the last remaining pilot left to destroy the ultimate weapon in the universe.
He’s such a great villain, it’s no surprise that Lucas devoted an entire prequel trilogy to the character study and psychological exploration of Anakin Skywalker, rather than giving fans the fun Star Wars trilogy they were expecting.
Even now, I don’t think epic scale gets any bigger than this (though they manage to top it in Return of the Jedi), and George Lucas managed it all with such expertise as to give it all a storybook stamp to it, what with the opening text suggesting its fairy tale reality.
Looking back now, it is amazing to see classical actors like Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing in roles that would be iconic and with the Obi Wan character, live on in many incarnations, via Ewan MacGregor or in animated form. It reminds me of how lasting this saga is.
But the real reason this is my favourite film is its lead characters. The classic triumvirate of Luke, Han and Leia is a perfect balance of personalities within the adventure, they have the right differences in character that together, get things done. And Han’s last minute change of heart, and his reappearance in the Millennium Falcon, is my single favourite moment of any film I've seen.