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Fans can hardly bear George Lucas' reasons for the failure of the Star Wars prequel trilogy

The Phantom Menace was a great success in terms of box office revenue, but the film, which was released in the war of stars The prequel trilogy was met with heavy criticism for one main reason. Fans and critics found the trilogy to be childish in comparison to the sequel film series.

George Lucas. Image credit: Joey Gannon/Creative Commons

Now, several decades later, the creator of war of starsGeorge Lucas defended the prequel trilogy. However, fans are not ready to accept the legendary director's reasoning. war of stars is one of the biggest and most successful franchises in entertainment history, and Lucas was the mastermind behind the visionary science fiction world that continues to grow with shows and films.

George Lucas defends Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

A still from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
A still from the war of stars Movie The Phantom Menace. Photo credit: 20th Century Studios.

George Lucas has finally responded to the criticism of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Recently, the legendary director was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival for his great contribution to the film industry. With this in mind, the director recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the trilogy, which was released 16 years after the original film series.

Lucas defended the film against criticism the prequel trilogy including The Phantom Menace which stars Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie PortmanJake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and Pernilla August. The director claimed it was a film for children.

It was meant to be a kids' movie for 12-year-olds going through puberty who don't know what they're doing and are asking the big questions: What should I be worried about? What's important in life? And Star Wars has all of those things. They're buried deep, but you definitely get them, especially when you're young.

For context: The Phantom Menace received only 53% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is very low considering the level of the franchise. Nevertheless, the film achieved a huge box office success of over 1 billion dollars (per The numbers) versus $115 million.

Fans find it hard to digest George Lucas' defense of The Phantom Menace

Jake Lloyd as young Anakin Skywalker in “The Phantom Menace”
Jake Lloyd in a still from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom MenacePhoto credit: 20th Century Studios

Lucas was not satisfied with that, the 80-year-old industry veteran wrote and directed The Phantom Menace further argued that “Critics and fans who were 10 years old when they saw the first part” and when the prequel trilogy hit theaters, fans and critics were blown away by the idea of ​​a children's film. Now fans on X have responded to the director's comment.

Lucas' original intention behind the film doesn't seem to be that it was conceived as a children's film, at least some fans will never believe that. Of course, the 1999 film has a PG rating, but at its core it was still far from being a children's film.

Everyone said the same thing about 3P0, that it was annoying and we should get rid of it. When I did the third one, it was about the Ewoks: “They're little teddy bears. This is a kids' movie, we don't want to see a kids' movie.” I said, “It's a kids' movie. It's always been a kids' movie.”

Lucas's insistence on the idea and his defense of it didn't go down well with fans. Of course, the franchise was his treasure trove, but the space opera's intent was clear on screen.

Electricity The Phantom Menace on Disney+