re: Star Wars - A New Hope: How Flawed is it?

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it has not aged nearly as well as other relatively contemporaneous sci-fi films (e.g. Blade Runner).

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See I would flip that. Blade Runner looks dated. Star Wars sits with The Thing as one of those effects heavy films that have aged well.

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A New Hope is a relatively slow, meandering film with bad acting from much of the core cast.

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Slow....maybe. Acting...certainly sub par on a few accounts.

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It's director is timid behind the camera, as I recall, with nothing to really make you think much was going on with the visual telling of the story other than to set up a scene so the actors can deliver lines. Instead, the director largely relies on visual effects to blow away the audience.

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On the flip side, had Lucas had more directorial bravado, would that have cheapened the feel of the film? We're talking ground-breaking special effects that shined often because the film was absent directorial flare. In a film with a half-western/half-fantasy bend that takes place in space, I think the directing did something important: it didn't get in the way.

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All that said, it is not a flawed film. It works. And it does what so many films fail to do: set up a new universe that no one had any background in and weave elements of mythology, religion, action, adventure, comedy, romance, and all the other wonderful things it has in it. Despite its flaws, it is a marvel in filmmaking.

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Exactly.