After seeing Revenge of the Sith (I’ll not comment here nor add to the current Mega-thread) I returned home and immediately watched A New Hope on DVD to see how well it would hold up as a sequel to Episode III.
Conclusion- Pretty damn good.
Of course the pace slowed down but that was actually a nice breather after Sith.
Some of the acting came off really good and quite uncanny at the beginning.
When Luke is asking Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen about his father and Ben Kenobi they give eachother this look as if they already knew the entire Sith background.
And this was just a couple of actors back in 75’ making some sci-fi flick they knew nothing about. Or watching Ben interact with Luke when they first meet and how eager he is to take Luke away to teach him the ways of the Force and help fight the Sith again. Again, we now know the whole story some 30 years later but watching Alec Guiness act it’s like he just watched Ep.3 also.
And the DeathStar generals mention THE EMPORER quite a bit. Even though he doesn’t even make an apperance in the film.
Even the space battles didn’t look that outdated. Just not as many ships.
And after watching a Special-FX extravaganza like Sith it was nice to see some solid characters and set pieces. And the camera work stayed fairly grounded.
Things that didn’t work:
The Jabba and Han added footage still looks clumsy. (Are FX harder to pull off with a static camera?)
(And the biggie): The Darth/Kenobi lightsaber duel. After the thrill of the Sith, a complete meltdown. Is this really the Ani/Obi we just saw fighting in the lava?
No more flips, jumps, overhead chops, spins. They just sort of wave the sabers at eachother twofisted like two old men fighting with their canes.
Yes, I know it’s an old movie from the 70’s. But trying to make it as a believable sequel to the Sith this part stands out like a sore thumb.
Overall, a nice transition storywise (uncanny in parts) but (ouch!) that lightsaber duel just ruined it for me.