I'm of the age were Star Wars are a big part of my childhood (ironically, I couldn't have been old enough to see the movie on first release). I had the comics, the books, the everything, and my big unfilled dream was to have the giant Millennium Falcon that my friend Neil had. I was so jealous. He had all the toys. And yes we played with them, though I always had to be Chewbacca to his Han Solo.
We've just watched the original three movies and they're unpretentious hokey fun. Even the Ewoks weren't as bad as I remembered. The plotting is ropy and the story rudimentary, but the casting was excellent and together it just worked as an enjoying romp across the galaxy.
I've no wish to ever see the latter three movies again, they were just awful.
I find the entire it's not real science fiction tedious. I'm not sure there's a council to decide such things. I don't care about genre. Tell a good story and why worry about whether or not fit such-and-such arbitrary definition. I never sure why people need to define themselves by what they read and watch (or rather what they pointedly don't read and watch).
I've got tickets to see the new one after Christmas and I'm quite looking forward to it.
I have, on the other hand, never managed to sit through all the Godfathers, find Rocky dull, and to be honest, find 2001 a bit of a long slog.