# Why is George Lucas despised by so many Star Wars fans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095 "2009-03-19T23:59:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/21 "2009-03-20T02:25:18Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Please, watch “American Graffiti” and “THX1138”. Lucas is a talented filmmaker who made an homage to the cheesy Saturday morning serials that he loved when he was a kid…and it got out of hand. Correct, to a point. But those first two movies were a long time ago. Lucas was a _promising_ filmmaker when he made an homage to the cheesy Saturday morning serials. > [@](#): > > Now that the “Star Wars” saga is over, I fully expect Lucas to return to the intensely personal films that he made before “Star Wars” happened. Unfortunately, I don’t expect that to happen. Lucas fell in love with the technology to the point where he abandoned the first rule of storytelling: be true to the story. When he “fixed up” Episode IV to the point where Han no longer shot first, he lost my respect. [QUOTE=Bootis] I don’t get the hate. People don’t hate their beloved bands when the get back together years later and make crappy new music. [/QUOTE] True enough, but we sometimes shake our heads in sadness because they’ve lost the magic that made them great. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/22 "2009-03-20T02:27:16Z")
An artist can never please pedantic nerds, it will never happen. George was screwed from the git go. There’s a reason William Shatner wrote a book titled\* Get A Life!\*. Hell, Tolkien is lucky he’s dead. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/23 "2009-03-20T02:41:23Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > BTW, before Star Wars the summer was viewed as a bad time for movies - there were no “Summer blockbusters” like we have now. That’s another thing Lucas changed. Star Wars may have helped create this phenomenon when it came out, but \*\*Jaws \*\*in 1975 was truly the first Summer blockbuster. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/24 "2009-03-20T02:59:53Z")
> [@HelloNinja](#): > > Star Wars may have helped create this phenomenon when it came out, but \*\*Jaws \*\*in 1975 was truly the first Summer blockbuster. And, of course, just to be a jerk, “Star Wars” wasn’t released in the summer. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/25 "2009-03-20T03:00:30Z")
As a casual fan, the prequels for me were just unengaging. I didn’t really care about the characters because they didn’t seem “real”. The “acting” was awful, but apparently that is what Lucas wanted. The special effects while very good overwhelmed the story. The humor was forced and dreadfully unfunny. Christopher Lee was wasted and the only character I found interesting was Palpatine. Lucas has said that now that Star Wars is finished, he can focus on smaller projects that he would have preferred to be working on. So far, I haven’t seen anything. ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/26 "2009-03-20T03:25:01Z")
As far as the Force goes, I look at it this way. It’s like having charisma. If you have a lot of charisma, you have a lot of friends. But having friends doesn’t GIVE you charisma. It’s just a sign that you have charisma. The more charisma, the more friends. Now, just think that charisma is the Force and friends are midichlorians. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/27 "2009-03-20T03:52:21Z")
> [@Shawn1767](#): > > As far as the Force goes, I look at it this way. It’s like having charisma. If you have a lot of charisma, you have a lot of friends. But having friends doesn’t GIVE you charisma. It’s just a sign that you have charisma. The more charisma, the more friends. **Now, just think that charisma is the Force and friends are midichlorians**. Switch that. Charisma is midichlorians, and friends are the force. Everyone has the ability to be charismatic (just like everybody has midichlorians) some just have more than others and can use it to get friends (use the force). I didn’t like the prequels at first, but taking all 6 parts into a giant saga the “dullness” of the prequels had to happen. I actually _like_ how the first three movies are set up (again in relation to the whole saga). There are many small things explained in 4-6 via 1-3… You need the boring politics stuff to get a sense of how the rebels in 4-6 operate as opposed to the Galactic Empire, don’t forget Leia was on a diplomatic mission from Alderaan. Not to mention too, in the real world if you were gonna amass a grand army to stop a rebelling group of people you would have to go through a million and a half political hoops in order for this to happen (think going to the UN to stop Germany or something). You need to show how little Ani is SO attached to his mother, and SO attached to anyone who shows him affection (as opposed to an absent father figure and an abusive slave owner) that he will do ANYTHING to keep them from getting hurt, and when they do (mom dying) he goes off the deep end knowing he has the power to stop it, but due to circumstances couldn’t. Learning how to stop death was another desperate attempt to keep someone with him forever If you think about it, that’s pretty damn damaging to anyone’s psyche. Not to mention the fact that throughout 1-3 they are saying he will bring “peace to the force”, and in 6 by killing the Emperor he actually DOES that, thus making him the true hero and not Luke. The semi-unfortunate part is that Lucas released the best part of the whole series first, gave us a taste of that, and then threw the boring parts at us, tried to jazz it up by races, starfights, and cool lightsaber duels (Phantom has the best in the whole series IMO) and left us all more sad after our initial excitement. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/28 "2009-03-20T04:24:46Z")
I think once you’re at the point of arguing that a movie “needs” to be boring, you have to start asking yourself if the movie should exist in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/29 "2009-03-20T04:28:36Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > And, of course, just to be a jerk, “Star Wars” wasn’t released in the summer. Technically, you’re right. The first **Star Wars** came out about a week before Memorial Day 1977. However, due to movies like **Star Wars** , “Hollywood Summer” starts around mid-May and goes until Labor Day weekend. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/30 "2009-03-20T05:01:55Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > An artist can never please pedantic nerds, it will never happen. George was screwed from the git go. There’s a reason William Shatner wrote a book titled\* Get A Life!\*. Hell, Tolkien is lucky he’s dead. Exsqueeze me! Yousa sayin weesa bein pedantic? Maybe yousa wanta try rewatchin that shit, okeeday? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/31 "2009-03-20T05:03:26Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I’m amazed so many people hate the prequels. They act like the first 3 movies were handed down by God or something. What did they expect for the 3 recent movies? They are just fun action movies, they are not religious experiences . Honestly, I am bored to tears by the orginial movies, but I can still sort of see how the later movies failed the fans. He took so very long to get back to the movies that people figured that they’d at least be good given how long the project dragged on. He dragged on so long that he ended up making [fewer movies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sequel_trilogy) than initially planned (at least that was a common complaint that explained their cancellation.) Lots of time for practice makes perfect with the movies that would actually be made, right? And then the movies finally came out…yeah. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/32 "2009-03-20T05:06:34Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Basically, for not being as good as he used to be. He made some great movies, which made him beloved, but also raised expectations of him for future endeavors. Which he was unable to meet. Arguably, the expectations were so high no one could have met him, but by the same token, not many people could have failed to meet them by such an astronomical margin. If he had merely spent this phase of his career making a bunch of movies that weren’t anywhere near as good as Star Wars, that would be one thing. But to do so when you’re supposedly making more Star Wars movies, and in the process bastardizing the whole franchise is something else. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/33 "2009-03-20T05:13:41Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I’m amazed so many people hate the prequels. They act like the first 3 movies were handed down by God or something. What did they expect for the 3 recent movies? They are just fun action movies, they are not religious experiences . The first ones were aimed at guys in their 20’s or so, and the new ones were aimed at seven-year-olds, complete with fart jokes. And then Lucas has the gall to pretend that he was only trying to make movies for grade schoolers all along. I’ve seen some of the early drafts online, and it’s quite clear he wasn’t writing for kids (or even to make it comprehensible to kids). ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/34 "2009-03-20T05:28:25Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > An artist can never please pedantic nerds, it will never happen. George was screwed from the git go. There’s a reason William Shatner wrote a book titled\* Get A Life!\*. Hell, Tolkien is lucky he’s dead. Shatner’s book was ironically titled. It was actually about Shatner’s attempts to understand the Trek fan base and to connect with it, not disavow it. Hell, Shatner wrote several Star Trek novels in which Kirk was resurrected and had many adventures with Captain Picard. Shatner seriously can’t understand why, if he could bring back Kirk for the novels, then why can’t J. J. Abrams put him in the next Trek movie? I don’t know if it’s greed, because whatever Nimoy gets, Shatner covets, but he’s proving himself to be the ultimate fanboy. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/35 "2009-03-20T05:53:36Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > That’s the thing, though. They aren’t fun action movies. They’re plodding, antiseptic, and unengaging. Have you watched _The Phantom Menace_ lately? It’s painfully dull. The original movies were not high art, by any means, and few people would legitimatly defend them as such. But they were zippy, had memorable characters, and did a good job at drawing the audience into the world it was creating. The prequel trilogy is literally at the Ed Wood level of film making, except with a gigantic budget. TPM was so bad that I couldn’t even watch the other two movies. Episodes IV-VI were FUN to watch. Sure, they were sci-fi, as I define it (not good SF, but more like space opera). The science sucked. They had the Mystical Force to explain anything that needed a real explanation. Most of the dialogue was painfully bad. But the movies were fun to watch, and I felt energized after watching them. I was very excited about seeing TPM. In the theater, though, I winced and shuddered at the acting and dialogue. I could not lose myself in the story. I will not mention Jar Jar Binks. There is no such creature, and never has been, and I WILL NOT remember him any longer. And I certainly don’t want to chance encountering this nonexistent item again. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/36 "2009-03-20T06:21:11Z")
Suppose George Lucas had been hit by a truck back in 1982. His filmography would consist essentially of the following: _THX 1138_, _American Graffiti_, _Star Wars_, _The Empire Strikes Back_, and _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ (I’m leaving out his executive producer credits) - he’d be remembered as one of the lost giants of movie making who was struck down in his prime. Now suppose somebody else had come along and bought the rights to Lucas’ estate. And they had gone on to make _Return of the Jedi_ and _Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom_ (which were serious drop-offs from the earlier works in those series). Suppose this guy used Lucas’ estate to make _Howard the Duck_ and _Willow_. Suppose he went back and re-edited Lucas’ early classics to make them “better”. Suppose after twenty years he decided to milk the cow to death and make a new Star Wars series, which he claimed was the real trilogy, and make Indiana Jones fight the Commies. And that’s what actually happened. The only difference is that the guy who trashed George Lucas’ legacy was George Lucas himself. Besides Lucas wasn’t all that in the first place. _Star Wars_ didn’t start the golden age of science fiction movies - it ended it. It made the genre about cool special effects rather than cool ideas and turned science fiction into sci-fi. So even at his peak, Lucas was entertaining but never thought-provoking. Lucas is a fallen Stephen Spielberg. ---
**Author:** ![Chase\_Ransom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@Chase\_Ransom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chase_Ransom)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/37 "2009-03-20T06:52:33Z")
I liked the prequels, see the point in the story being told (even Jar Jar which I have distaste for but is necessary), and don’t really understand why everyone is so hell bent on hating it. Must be some sort of inner child disillusion or something. I like the prequels - all of em. There, I said it. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/38 "2009-03-20T09:25:01Z")
Don’t forget for the 3 prequels everybody knew exactly how they would end - Darth Vader would be created from Anakin Skywalker. There was no surprise , we just did not know exactly how that would happen. For the first 3 movies nobody knew what would happen. Of course for episode 5 I heard before I saw it that Darth Vader was Luke’s father. But even then some people said he was lying and it was not true. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/39 "2009-03-20T09:29:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Must be some sort of inner child disillusion or something. I’m 51, and I was either about to be married or I was married when I first saw SW. So, I was an adult when I saw it. TPM was just complete and utter crap. There’s no way around that. I think that a better director and writer could have made an amazing movie out of the same backstory. But that’s not what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095/40 "2009-03-20T10:31:37Z")
> [@Chase\_Ransom](#): > > I like the prequels - all of em. There, I said it. You’re a brave, brave man, **Chase**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-george-lucas-despised-by-so-many-star-wars-fans/490095.md?page=3)