Star Wars ★★★★★

George Lucas takes a leap of faith to build his sandbox. He's got this keen eye for detail about this setting that you kinda forget about as the years progressed, and his willingness to stretch technology to its limits and wear his inspirations on his sleeve help make a world that feels real, even though it's a movie about space wizards with laser swords. Distant, yet familiar. Grandiose, but there's still something tangible about it. There's grime, there's clutter, there's junk, and it all goes a long way to helping Lucas sell you on this space fantasy land.
It all carries a pretty silly script, even though for my money the main cast is charismatic enough that you almost don't notice. You can even notice flashes of this in teen Mark Hamill even though he's super outclassed by Alec Guinness, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher (he will close that gap a little bit by the end of trilogy). Shout-out to the editing team too because lordy this woulda been a super slog without 'em. I've seen the special features!

Sidebar: When I was a kid I thought the stormtroopers wearing swimsuits in Lego Star Wars 2 were hilarious