Dialogue tells you a lot about who people are (Leia, face to face with the scariest dude in the Empire, mouths off to him; Vader, told that the princess will die before telling him anything, basically says he's fine with it; Luke is excited to see people potentially more dangerous than sandpeople; Tarkin flat out admits that he's executing people for shock value; etc). The story starts with a bang, then steps back to do slower paced world building before you're really moving forward at top speed again.

I was thinking about how when he auditioned, Mark Hammill thought Luke was Han's young gee-whiz sidekick. But the movie doesn't downplay anyone other than making the droids McGuffins. Leia imprisoned is a heroine stalling her captors, rather than a princess to be rescued. Chewie establishes that he's badass in his own right early. Obi-Wan proves his competence tackling the tractor beam, and his voice in Luke's head fast-forwards Gandalf's death and resurrection, so he's not a throwaway character.

All of this really pushes the movie *as a movie*, even without all the other stuff (film-maker buoyed up by the stuff he thinks is cool; novelty of a lived in universe for sci fi; the way nothing else like it was out there in the mid 70s).