My Critical Perspective on George Lucas and Disney

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In my opinion George Lucas was just the initial spark for star wars. But an assortment of far more talented people bought it into fruition. I find it reductive as if he was the be-all end-all mastermind of it all. The original trilogy was a collaborative project. The first movie was essentially saved in editing by the editors and his wife, and there were so many things implemented that Lucas had never thought of. Lucas has certainly lived under the shadows of the "Empire Strikes Back", the movie that he had the least to do with creatively, and was largely the genius of Irvin Kershner. There seems to be a group of militant George Lucas fans who act as if saying he gets too much credit is reductive. But I feel like regarding him as the "creator" of star wars is actually even more reductive, as it disregards the craftsmanship, John Williams music, the Directors of 5 and 6, the writers and the editors. A new hope gives the illusion of a good director, until you see the prequels, and learn how the original star wars was a great movie because it was so well edited.

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An example I take is Yoda's character - from being wise and pacifistic to training a room of kids to use a lightsaber, and flipping around the room where he fought Count Dooku. I feel like this was a complete misunderstanding of his character, and this isn't my only issue. I'm just using this as an example to illustrate my point.

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Also the prequels being meticulously planned out ahead of time shouldn't be a point of appraisal in my opinion - it should be an expectation. An example being that the script for ''Revenge Of The Sith" was written in a week, and the writing for the phantom menace (While the best prequel in my opinion) is still a mess. As much as the worldbuilding for the prequels doesn't appeal to me (like the clones, Coruscant etc), I can't deny that it leaves a lot of room for great TV shows, books and video games that outdo the movies themselves. I feel like I am either a little too vague with my jab at Lucas, or too harsh, According to a documentary he was even diagnosed with a heart condition resulting from stress while making the original film. So despite how it might have come off, I still have exponential respect for the man.

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Disney is a tough situation that I have a big bag of mixed feelings over. It's clear George would have planned for the sequel films would cater to the prequel trilogy, movies that were generally disliked before Disney. So I empathize with Disney for playing it safe and apart from "The Rise Of Skywalker" , I don't think the movies are that bad from a filmmaking perspective. The problem is that Disney is trying to give Star Wars the marvel treatment, while lacking the creativity to expand/create universes, and didn't plan their trilogy ahead of time. Disney's projects, while technically superior to the prequels, are timid, sleazy, manipulative and pandering (apart from "The Last Jedi", which was a hot mess).

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However I certainly understand why Disney wouldn't want to put out an off-putting film to kick off a trilogy, hence why "The Force Awakens" is so similar to the original star wars.
Also Jar Jar and the monologue about sand are definitely the least of my concerns about these movies. The tiny nitpicking means very little to me compared to the bigger problems. But hey, this is strictly my opinion, and as long as you guys have reasons to back them up I'll always respect opposing ones.