I've been going through the Star Wars films in chronological order after not having watched them in 12+ years. So far I've watched Episodes 1-4. Currently my ranking is ROTS > TPM > ANH > AOTC. Phantom Menace was surprisingly better than I remembered it. A New Hope is only just barely better than Attack of the Clones, perhaps even tied.
A New Hope is just an awful movie. Too many ridiculous plot points. Too much campiness. Not enough payoff. It's probably a great sci fi romp for its time, but I have to compare it to the others.
Some of the bullshit I had to sit through:
They take over half an hour just to get off Tatooine and it feels like everyone's dicking around instead of doing important work. The other movies had much better pacing (even clones).
Not ANH's fault but I watched the remastered edition and the CGI plastered onto everything was jarring and painful.
The most obvious one was the poor handling of the emotional content. Luke lost his foster parents and within a few hours was stranded on the Empire's largest space station with a space wizard committing multiple crimes punishable by death. By the end of the movie it's been less than 24 hours and everyone he's ever cared about is dead. The guy just takes everything in stride like what he's experiencing is completely normal. Same thing goes for Leia who just lost literally a whole planet.
Han is an idiot. Here's almost exactly what happened in the cantina:
"You have to pay us 10,000 credits up front."
"We'll pay you 2,000 now and 15,000."
"17,000? Woah. Deal."
Might as well have thrown in a fucking pot of gold too. Lol. Jabba is also stupid. He's so mad at this guy for jerking him off that he WANTS HIM DEAD and all Han has to say is "I'll pay you 15% more" to fix everything? We know how this turns out by the next movie but as a standalone scene here it's pretty dumb.
The Vader vs Kenobi fight is pitiful, and Ben just disappears into smoke. We already established at Most Eisley that lightsabers cut, not evaporate their victims. Vader stomps on the pile of clothing in confusion. Us too, buddy!
I know he was a "bush pilot" back home and they're always taking volunteers but the willingness to give Luke a pilot's uniform as soon as he arrived was completely unbelievable. At least have a montage where he proves himself to the commander or something.
There is a significant amount of fun factor in this movie which saves it. Leia is great. The robot banter was great. Plucky kid getting whisked away from his home to embark on a hero's journey is great. It's just not anywhere as good as the visionary craft that permeates all of The Phantom Menace. And we'd expect that. A master craftsman only gets better at what he does.
