Some people have been saying this is just sour grapes. Meh. I’ve watched the full interview, and I don’t get that George Lucas is all that bitter. He actually is admitting that the difference between him–even with all of his hyper control of the franchise–is that he did not always if ever do what he did just to make the fans happy. And that is obvious by the reception of I – III. (Which I admit to liking for all kinds of reasons that have to do with philosophy and not with film making.)
The central point is that Disney and the new heads of Lucasfilm were on record as making something that fans would really, really, really want to see. (Mission accomplished.) I think even with some of the cheeky comments of “white slavers” taken into account, he is sticking to the “this is a movie that fans will love and it works since that is what they were shooting for.”
On a further note for fans: Alan Dean Foster’s novelization for The Force Awakens is way better than the movie. What I have learned over the last decade is that the books have always been better than the movies. In the sense of where the films fit, they give us iconography from which the narratives can draw to put us into the universe. But the books are where you should really search for the Force.
CALL ME MAGGIE 