AntcuFaalb said:

They're supposed to be entertaining like the Flash Gordon serials of yesteryear, nothing more.

And Raiders of the Lost Ark was supposed to be entertaining like some other silly serials of yesteryear. But, IMO, something funny happened on the way to the final cut. These movies, perhaps entirely by chance, all became better than the serials they emulated. I don't disagree that the Star Wars trilogy is ultimately space opera and not some of the world's 50 most important films (But 50 most influential? Probably), but they are a damn sight better than Flash Gordon. The term "better than the sum of its parts" I think applies fairly here.

The thing for me is that I can't separate the final product from the craft and effort that went into it. If I can tell that a creators were just going through the motions and taking shortcuts, I can't help but enjoy the final product less, even if that product is not markedly different than that produced by creators who clearly worked their asses off.

But as I've said before, ultimately I enjoy the whole trilogy, even though none of them are in my personal top ten. But I don't like ROTJ as well as SW or ESB. And I don't like any Star Wars film as well as The Third Man (I think Kane is overrated...). But I enjoy all of them in their own ways, to different degrees.