George Lucas “really liked” The Force Awakens, so now we have nothing to worry about
After the Star Wars prequels and Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, it’s understandable that there’s a sizable group of people who are openly pessimistic about The Force Awakens. They were burned by sequels to beloved films in the past, so they don’t want to open their hearts to the possibility that the movie will actually be good this time. After all, how could it? Everything is bad these days anyway, so what are the odds that the guy who made those Star Trek movies nobody was all that into will be able to make a Star Wars movie on par with the original trilogy?
Well, it turns out that all of those fears can now be put to rest, because the one man whose opinion you can trust when it comes to Star Wars has seen The Force Awakens, and supposedly he “really liked it.” No, we’re not talking about Red Letter Media’s Mr. Plinkett, we’re talking about George Lucas himself. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy says The Force Awakens was screened for Lucas, and he apparently walked away so impressed that he’ll be attending the film’s premieres in London and Los Angeles later this month.
This is noteworthy in a couple of different ways. On an internet-friendly ironic level, it opens the door for people to be snarky about Lucas’ taste in movies. He made those terrible prequels and was deeply involved in Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, so if he liked The Force Awakens then it must be bad! Ha ha! On the other hand, Lucas has been openly suggesting that he was a little disappointed by Disney’s decision to abandon any plans he had for post-Return Of The Jedi stories when it bought Lucasfilm, and he referred to the split between him and Star Wars as a “divorce” on multiple occasions. That means he could be inclined to be a little harsher on the movie than he otherwise would’ve been, since this is his baby being taken in a direction he didn’t expect. And yet, on a third hand, Lucas said back in November that he regretted never being able to experience Star Wars the way everyone else did, so maybe he was inclined to like it more than he otherwise would’ve.
Basically, George Lucas saw The Force Awakens, and it’s really impossible to know how we should interpret his reaction until more people get a chance to see it for themselves. However, this means you can interpret his opinion however you’d like, which makes it perfect for settling internet arguments.