The majority of movies from Star Wars were created under the direction or at least the oversight of George Lucas. With the sequels, the director had no say, which immediately led to a significant rule being disregarded.
George Lucas was the sole ruler over the brand and the story since the release of the first Star Wars film. That changed in 2012. Lucas sold his work to Disney, thus relinquishing control over it.
It didn’t take long before new films were announced. In 2015, “The Force Awakens” launched the first of three new episodes – the beginning of the sequel trilogy.
Episode 7 received a lot of positive feedback upon release. To this day, the film has a critic score of a remarkable 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. This places it on par with Episode 5, with only Episode 4 rated slightly higher at 94%.
Users gave Episode 7 a score of 84% on the same platform. However, this positive impression did not hold up over the years. Especially after the release of Episodes 8 and 9, many fans’ opinions of the sequels deteriorated.
And even George Lucas himself is not a huge fan of it. Particularly Episode 7 does not adhere to a rule that previous films made special.
On MeinMMO, you will find a ranking of all Star Wars films.
Star Wars must be original
What does George Lucas think about Episode 7? In a conversation with Charlie Rose, which you can see on YouTube, George Lucas talked in 2015 about the sale of Star Wars to Disney. He explained that he had ideas for Episode 7 that were ignored by Disney.
The company had its own vision for continuing the saga. The result was a film that Lucas could not relate to. The reason: “The Force Awakens” relies heavily on nostalgia. The storyline resembles that of Episode 4 in many ways and offers a lot of fan service.
Lucas remarked:
They (Disney) wanted to make a retro film. I don’t like that. With every film, I made a great effort to make it different.
George Lucas aimed to surprise his audience with each episode in his films. Even if certain motifs like the Death Star reoccur, there were usually new aspects of the story illuminated.
This is particularly evident when comparing the classic trilogy with the prequels, namely Episodes 1-3. The latter sensibly expands the universe and gives Star Wars a clearer political component. Lucas successfully distinguished himself from his own films.
That Disney, on the contrary, made a film that deliberately recalled Episode 4 was not liked by the creator of Star Wars. What do you think about it? Were you bothered by the extensive fan service, or did it not matter to you? Feel free to share your opinion with us in the comments. Lucas knows another trick for successful films: George Lucas is known for bad dialogues in Star Wars, but his secret for a good film is something else altogether
