The People vs. George Lucas

OK, listen. I like “Star Wars” quite a bit. I wore my VHS down of the original trilogy, I played with the toys, I attacked my brothers with lightsabers and, of course, I think Han shot first. George Lucas is the man behind the wonder while also being the man behind all the recent pain.

The prequels have caused the die-hard “Star Wars” fans to lose their minds. They hate them on such an absurd level that they say their childhood had a non-consensual, metaphorical penetration. No, the prequels are not good movies — not even “Revenge of the Sith.” Red Letter Media made these amazing and creative dissections breaking down why they all failed in basic storytelling. Those feature-length reviews are clever and self-aware with their humor.

“The People vs. George Lucas” needed that combination.

The way the geek community went from adoring one man to hating him is a weird part of pop-culture history. This movie came out too soon because they didn’t have time to cover Lucas’s Blu-ray alterations to the original trilogy that further aggravated the fans. From Ewoks blinking to the random appearance of Jabba in “A New Hope” to digital Hayden Christensen to “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!," there are enough criticisms of Lucas to warrant knocking him down from a godlike status.

For 90 minutes, an assorted number of fans just yell at the camera. Some of their points are valid, but then they talk too long to where the point becomes petty. When the filmmakers let people scream at Lucas for his bad edits and loss of joy, well, they aren’t looking at their own product. The editing and interviews for this movie are all over the place in quality. During the last five minutes, they attempt to say how they really still love George Lucas but it’s eyerollingly insincere.

If they wanted to live up to their title, they should have had a better attorney for Lucas. I don’t know who can argue Jar-Jar Binks, but most people can argue against these fans. They have treated this as such a personal attack, which is perplexing. There are films and there are people. The interviews they have of Lucas show him as a bit socially awkward and overwhelmed by his creation. There is a point when the art is no longer the artist’s. All the things they loved about the saga are still there. Luke Skywalker is still here to rescue you, the AT-ATs will still fall and Leia will still be dressed inappropriately in Jabba’s lair.

So by the end, they had the wrong reaction. I felt bad for Lucas because his fans went out and made something like this to put in theaters. There was a film to be made about this experience, but everyone involved was too emotional to see that.