Nah. I have a list of the top ten movies I consider the best, and Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back are on the lower half of that list. The original trilogy are some of my favourite movies, but none are number one.
This brings up an interesting point.
For me, there is a clear distinction between “best” movies and “favorite” movies. As an example, I consider Seven Samurai and Lawrence of Arabia some of the best movies, and I really like both of them a lot. But at the same time, I still personally like my favorite Godzilla movies more and would rank them higher on a list of “favorite films” even though I can easily recognize they are obviously not superior to the aforementioned “best” movies in any kind of reasonable or objective critique.
IMO that’s just guilt needlessly pruning your perfectly acceptable “best” list. The world would be a boring place if we all agreed on what’s best. I can say I love Buckaroo Banzai and the critics may sneer at me, but I get a good reception around here. I can say I love Cabin Boy and make no friends at all. But they’re not shuffled off to some second-tier list due to lack of overlap with the BFI 100 list. Let that freak flag fly!
I don’t see it that way at all. I feel no guilt over liking Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster more than Seven Samurai. But I can readily recognize and agree that Seven Samurai is clearly a better film. I mean, just looking objectively, Ghidrah easily has more faults. As an example, look at the editing. Ghidrah (at last the original Japanese cut) jumps back and forth between day and night almost nonsensically. A direct result of the super rushed production (it was one of three big SFX films from Toho all made in one year by the same crew in 1964). Objectively, its actually a rather sloppily made film. It certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the technical prowess, superb writing, or phenomenal acting in Seven Samurai.
But even so, while I definately love both films, I personally enjoy Ghidrah more and certainly watch it FAR more often than Seven Samurai.
So one is obviously “better” but that doesn’t mean I can’t personally like the other more.