In honor of Star Wars: The Force Awakens' release, we're re-running our series from 2012 when I watched the Star Wars movies for the first time. Read my intro/explanation here.

First of all, I can see why A New Hope was a surprise hit.  Though there's a great amount of world-building that could leave room for prequels and a satisfying, but still open ending that could pave the way (and obviously did) for sequels, the core story is both compelling and entertaining, and introduces a cast of instantly likable characters.  There's something strange too about how even the non-human elements (the droids) and alien forms (the Jawas) are kinda, well, cute with their bleeps and blips and bloops.  There's a little something in A New Hope for everyone, and I found it to be a pleasant surprise (admittedly I came to it with haughty reservations).