The first four words in the title crawl are literally โa long time agoโ ;-)
But on a more serious note, itโs kind of a mix of both sci-fi and fantasy. There are fantasy tropes such as magic (the force), good and evil wizards (the Jedi and the Sith), swords and dueling (light sabers) etc. In many ways it is more like LOTR than Star Trek: Obi Wan is like Gandalf, Luke is like Frodo etc. Also none of the technology is ever explained, there is no techno-babble.
On the other hand there are lots of sci-fi elements such as spaceships, aliens, technology etc. So on the surface it seems like science fiction, but it borrows lots of stuff from fantasy.
Science fiction usually tries to stick to realism to a degree in how it uses futuristic tech and ideas. George Lucas didnโt really try to do that. He always called it a space opera
This movie is amazing. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watch it as soon as physically possible. It has romance movie elements, but is very much also comedy/adventure movie.
Could consider the Ash vs Evil Dead series to qualify. It was technically horror, but done in a very entertaining and campy (hindsight) way and not taken too seriously.
I've got one that's the opposite: Tusk (2014) is listed as a comedy, written and directed by Kevin Smith (of Jay and Silent Bob fame), but is actually a horror film.
Well the films literally begin with A long time ago in a galaxy far far away... this implies it happened before our current time and has a strong resemblence to a fairy tale.
Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz kind of play with that by inverting their approaches. SotD is a very mellow comedic take on a normally action packed American zombie movie, while HF is a over the top action take on a very British retire to the country/murder mystery genre.
I'm trying to understand this question a bit more. Do you mean intentionally not typical for it's genre, or unintentionally?
If intentionally, I'd go with Shaun of the Dead, though it's actually considered part of the 'comedy horror' genre so wouldn't necessarily consider it 'lying' about being hilarious film about a zombie apocalypse.
If unintentionally, then hands down Troll 2. You can't piss on hospitality.
Donny Darko, maybe? All I knew was that it was a psycho thriller. I had to go on the internet to find out WTF I had just seen, because it's also a sci-fi.
Stalker by Tarkovsky. The description made it sound like a really cool sci-fi/fantasy, bleak adventure movie. Instead it was just a bunch of melodramatic philosophy. Pretty much nothing even remotely sci-fi happens.
Star Wars isn't a sci-fi at all it's just an action movie in space. Sci-fi deals with moral dilemmas arising from the use of technology. Star Wars is just a bunch of space lasers.