Protagonists: The main character in A New Hope is Luke Skywalker. He's a lot more whiny in the first movie than he is than he is in the sequels. And that's really kind of distracting. The other main characters are Han Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, R2D2, and C3PO. Han is my favourite character in the first movie. Probably due to how cool he plays it. Chebacca doesn't have any actual lines but he's somehow still pretty interesting. Obi Wan is basically every other old mentor character ever. Princess Leia is also a pretty strong character. R2D2 really doesn't have much personality do to only being able to talk through beeping noises. But they're harmless. C3PO is kind of annoying but it's not too noticeable. A lot of the characters from the first movie are in the Force Awakens. They mostly remain unchanged. Han is still overly confident, C3PO worries a lot and so on. The main characters introduced in this movie are Finn, Rey, BB8, and Poe. Finn and Rey are actually pretty likeable and have interesting characters with Finn being and ex-Stormtrooper and Rey being a down on her luck scavenger. BB8 is a droid and he doesn't talk. They're not interesting but harmless. Poe is kind of boring. He's just the generic good looking, talented, nice guy. But he's barely in the movie. There's actually a fake out in the beginning that I thought was pretty funny where they made you think he'd be the main character. Both the movies have a pretty solid cast. But due to Luke whining in the first half of the movie in the original I'll give the point to the Force Awakens.
Antagonists: The main antagonist in A New Hope is Darth Vader. He's a classic antagonist. He's threatening and an interesting character..... He's also Luke's father. It's not a spoiler everyone knows it! Anyway that about does it for the antagonists in the first movie. Emperor Palpatine wasn't introduced until the Empre Strikes back. Don't worry there are many more antagonists in the Force Awakens. First off is Kylo Ren, he's Han Solo's son (Spoiler) and actually a pretty good antagonist. Probably the only complaint I have is that without his helmet on he isn't very intimidating. The other antagonists are General Hux, Captain Phasma, and Supreme Leader Snoke. The only thing I remember about General Hux is that he speaks with a British accent. Not just any British accent an evil British accent.... Trust me there's a difference. The only things I remember about Captain Phasma is that she's a girl and wears a really shiny outfit. Snoke is sort of like..... Um.... He's not very interesting. But he may get more interesting in the next movie. But a New Hope has the more interesting villain and the Force Awakens has the uninteresting villains weighing it down.
Special Effects: The original was made in the 70's. But surprisingly the effects hold up. A lot of the puppets and models are pretty good. Sometimes you get a really dated effect but for the most part it's pretty good. The second movie came out recently so the effects are of course improved. It integrates the CGI and practical effects like puppets really well. So yeah, I'm going to give the point to the Force Awakens.
Plot: Both these movies have similarities. It starts with a character hiding something inside a droid, a poor character on a desert planet finds the droid, and it ends with a giant evil base blowing up. The main difference is the pacing of the plots. The original movie has a much slower pace than the new one. On one hand a New Hope was better at explaining things but too much explaining started to get tedious at times. On the other hand if the plot moves too fast you might not be able to explain things. But personally I prefer the Force Awakens.Conclusion: I think the Force Awakens is better. Being made now gives it better effects, and less dated acting. But a New Hope is of course still a classic and is the movie that started it all. But in the end I think the Force Awakens did a better job. I'm glad to have compared these movies and let me know what you think.
