I'll admit, Lucas has made some mistakes in the past. And the prequels weren't as good as the original trilogy in my opinion. But I still think he did some good work overall.

I guess this is probably for the best. If Lucas did any more to the Star Wars films people would probably form an international angry mod around his house. :P

About 20 years too late but good news in any case.

Let the dancing begin.

"Why would I make any more," Lucas stated about continuing with his popular sci-fi universe, "when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?"

He totally deserves all the scorn that he gets. Also ROFLMAO! XD

Just seems like he could have saved so much heartache by just offering up the option of original or special edition. Films like Lord of the Rings offered up theatrical release or special extended edition so would Star Wars really not sell if you had different options on which copy to buy on Blu Ray?

And George buddy pal, if you really want to mess with something how about going back and doing something about Jar Jar. That's a fix a lot of people would like to see.

But you know maybe it's past time for George Lucas to pass the reigns of the Star Wars universe off to someone else. As much as I loved Batman the Animated series without it ending at some point there is so much Batman stuff I would have missed if Batman wasn't handed off to another direction. Perhaps it's time for the new blood to take on Star Wars.

Though I do feel sorry him having to give his greatest work I can only rejoice at the fact he won't taint Star Wars any further.

*slow clap* nice job, everyone. you have just made George Lucas retire his star wars altering ways. i hope you are happy, because i'm sure not.

Deshara:

Treblaine:
The galaxy's reaction:

You know who is representative of who here.

He can't compare dedicated fanbase to pushy publishers who are purely interested in mass appeal to milking most from their products at cost of artistic integrity. If anyone is guilty of compromise for money grubbing it is Lucas himself with his shameless milking from merchandise to pointless spinoffs. e turned to the dark side of force film.

Only unlike Vader he doesn't seem to have realised how wrong he has been.

I find the implication that we're torching Lucas on a pyre now that he's done as being undescribably hilarious.

Incidentally, nothing of value was lost.

I'm certainly not endorsing the immolation of a person who is clearly still very much alive.

Just that symbolically his dark side has been vanquished and put to rest and that this is great news to celebrate the end of a terrible era.

Though the reference isn't perfect, while Vader finally saw the error of his ways abs sacrificed himself, Lucas is still playing the victim after making billions upon billions of dollars being an utterly shallow, selfish, uncooperative and hypocritical hack.

Do we have to watch the Red Letter Media reviews again?

I wonder if Lucas realises how much he has become Vader, a young talented hero who looked like he would change the world for the better, instead chose the selfish path to corrupt and destroy all that is good. But Vader realised he was evil, and put a stop to it. Lucas is just giving up, the fans have picked him up and thrown him down the ventilation shaft and even as he falls he curses everyone but himself. I still think he sees himself as Luke (Lucas?) who can do no wrong.

Honestly I would rather have seen him redeem himself. Maybe not with Star Wars, but the potential for greatness is still there.

Sigh. It's just depressing all the way around. There's no joy in my heart for any of this.

God damnit for some reason I feel sorry for him.

Honestly, if his 'true' vision for Star Wars could only be achieved by 'tweaking' the original trilogy, then us Star Wars fans should really shut the flock up, if it wasn't for him there would be no Star Wars in the first place.

Honestly, I liked the special edition in 1997 (besides Greedo shooting first). It involved deleted scenes and thigns that were meant to be in the originals. It completed it and made it better in my opinion. It was all that retconned bullshit in the DVD release that fucked me off. I am so glad that Lucas is "leaving business behind". Maybe he will regain some credibility as a film maker. But probably not seeing as Star Wars was art from adversity and the product of a TEAM, not just one guy. Nobody dared to cross him in the production of the prequels. Also, seriously, dick move allowing those CGI abominations of films to be created.

If you 't like the 1997 version, just watch the endings of ROTJ and tell which one sucks and which one doesn't. Just saying.

I don't despise the man, and actually didn't mind the prequel trilogy. However, I think that this is something of good news, if Lucas can get his head back on straight.

Lucas is just jelly that KOTOR and SWTOR's storylines are better then all 6 of his movies.

Well, I can feel for him.

It's not right to call George Lucas the spawn of Satan because he mucked around with his films, even if he didn't make great choices. It's sort of sad to see him go, and it's a shame that nobody's really sad about it. He made a hugely successful franchise and people are cheering that the films aren't going to be desecrated anymore :/

Ooon the other hand I'm not a star wars fan so maybe I would have called him a terrible person along with everyone else if I was. Still seems a bit unjust to me.

I'd be more sympathetic if he would just retire gracefully.

Lucas made one of the greatest trilogies of all time, and he made one of the worst trilogies of all time.
So in that way, I guess he broke even...Oh right, we still had to put up with his Star Wars Christmas Special...and Howard the Duck*.

Oh well, at least he won't be burdened with the weight of mass-merchandising anymore. Now his movies can be made without the obvious studio mandate of absolute greed. The Prequels were specifically designed for marketing licensing fees and selling merchandise, nothing else.

When Lucas announced that he was going to do the prequels, the temptation to sell out completely must have been tremendous; there was no way any sane businessman would pass up an opportunity to make BILLIONS solely for the sake of art/quality.
Result: George Lucas is worth over 3 billion (USD).

So yeah, no more of that...I hope.

It should give him the freedom to make a movie that isn't doomed to be some blatant commercial for a bunch of licensed crap, or the continued pillaging of fan-loyalty. I'm guessing that his new films might not necessarily be original (his best films are steeped in homages to older serials, aka, other works), but for him, it could be a fresh new start.

*_{(*warning*Movie contains inter-species flirtation/romance...and duck tits*warning*)}

Twilight_guy:
Congratulations internet you whined so hard you made an artist give up.

Based on his work in the last decade, I'm of the opinion that Lucas ceased resembling an "artist" a long, long time ago.
It's up to him to prove me wrong, and I would be most pleased if he did.

Samus Aaron:
Who the hell cares that Lucas altered his films? Is he not entitled to create his stories as he wishes? Further, his edits are so minor that they're barely noticeable at all, and any person who hasn't seen the unaltered versions wouldn't think any less of the altered versions. I really don't see why Lucas is so hated despite everything he has accomplished.

Thanks for being the odd one. I'm with you on this and will add to it that all 6 movies are in the Top 100 movies with the highest revenue. If the more it went the worse they were, why did they keep making money? The answer is easy... most people didn't care so much about the Star Wars legacy when going to see them. Here we have the loud geek voices speaking angry. But most people just go see a movie and that's it. Not everybody cares about expressing themselves over the internet. The same way as 99% of the people won't ever complain directly to a filmmaker. They either love or hate the movie they just saw, talk bits of it with friends around a supper and that's it. They don't make a big deal out of it as if it ruined their life. You guys have to realise that you don't represent the majority. That the original versions of these movies still exist. That there are no reasons to feel like your childhood memories were soiled. I know, I'm not going make friends with this post, but please be honest with yourself before hating me. I'm not saying "get a life"... I'm saying "life goes on". There are more important things in life than movies to let it ruin your life and generate so much hate.

NOTE: I mean no disrespect when using the word "geek". I consider myself to be one and here I am expressing my opinion over the internet. So I'm not passing judgment on it. I simply accept that I am not the voice of the majority.

EVERYONE QUIT BITCHING, WE NEED TO FIND SOMEONE TO REFILM THE PREQUIL TRILOGY.

Granted, I liked Obi-wan played by Ewan McGregor. That was good. Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn was a good move. Ray Park played the painfully short role of the near mute Darth Maul quite well. And we've all come to accept Temuera Morrison as Jango Fett and by extension Boba Fett. But Hayden Christensen as Anakin? THE EXISTANCE OF JAR JAR BINKS!?

It may not have been Hayden's fault, may have been George that said "Ummm yeah... uh Hayden? Could you sound less like a iconic figure and more of a whiney twat?" Mark Hamill pulled off the whiney little snot turned force powered badass quite well in the original but that bastard also MADE the Joker in Batman so let's not try to compare people to him shall we?

Onto Jar Jar Binks. The red flag that something wasn't quite right. Many may try to compare him to the Ewoks but lets face it. Moronic frog people from the swamp just don't have the same likeability as cute little teddy bear people who turn out to be vicious little man-eating gremlins.

That said, even the Ewoks kinda pissed me off, the best of the best of the Empire were bested by these little creepy freaks. Did kinda ruin the Empire's indomitable juggernaut status but those poor Stormtroopers could never quite hit shit anyways. But the battle between the Trade Federation Battle Droids against the Gungans could have gone in another movie while Yakety Sax plays (most know it as the Benny Hill Theme).

Ha, I said "EVERYONE QUIT BITCHING" and then proceeded to bitch myself.

Its kind of disturbing how many people direct hate filled, insulting and just unnecessary comments towards a man that merely changes something he himself made(and no I'm not suggesting he was the only one involved in making star wars).Yeah you don't like the prequels and you don't like him changing small things like making Yoda CGI we understand now get over it and stop acting like he killed your mother and then desecrated her grave.For the record I grew up watching the original trilogy and loved them.I believe them to be superior films to the prequels but I still like the prequels, even if I didn't I wouldn't throw a hissy fit over it every time it comes up in conversation.

Nurb:
But then he's always been a douchebag. He fired an editor for one of the original films because the guy thought lucas' "shot-reverse-shot" scenes of characters merely walking and sitting down were too uninteresting and lazy. The only reason the original trilogy looked so good was because he had people there to challenge his stupid ideas. He actually wanted Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade to take place in a HAUNTED CASTLE! If you look at the footage behind the scenes of Indy 4, everyone points to George for the bad ideas, such as space ships and aliens... the original title was going to be "Indiana Jones And The Men From Mars". So George can't create movies for shit, but he has good ideas if others can direct them

Holy shit, George Lucas is the Vince Russo of movies. That's a very scary thought.

OT: I'll admit that I've never been a fan of Star Wars, but I just can't understand why he refuses to release the originals. All the fans want it, so why doesn't he just give it to them?

He already made Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
The damage has already been done, this is just him returning to his bond-villain lair to cackle maniacally for a while

MrPeanut:
And this, is why idiotic fanboys should be hated.

What? because they make the world better?

I say we go after Uwe Boll next!

Well... I guess it had to happen sometime. I'm sorry George, I never hoped you'd quit your career, just wish you'd took a step back and understood that film making is a group process. As for people complaining about people complaining about the changes (wow that sentence seems redundant), please understand that it was people that were complaining about changes during the movie process that made the original Star Wars trilogy what it is.

Not every thing Lucas did on that project was gold. The project required a group effort, rewrites, people pitching in with ideas and having the bravery to disagree with him and point out what would be stupid. These days, Lucas was just too powerful for that to happen. I doubt they'd be many people on his staff that would question him creatively, their job may depend on it. Being forced to change things a listen to others ideas is what helped the series. When given free reign, the prequel trilogy happens.

Now let me get this out of the way. I don't hate every change that happened in the re-releases. Some I find are for the better. I've watched the trilogy side by side with the originals, the 90's re-release and the Bluray version. The weakest of the lot is the Bluray version by far, can't note any positive changes. However with the re-release, the lightsabres have been tampered with and look a little better from scenes, no longer looking like they are drawn on, Vaders voice in the re-release has more boom to it which helps add effect, Ian Mcderrmid (I think thats the guys name, the fellow that played the Emperor) replaces the actor in the second movie and finally, the song at the end of ROJ is changed for the better (in my opinion).

Hell there's even some CGI shots that I enjoyed, mainly of the Falcon, like where it sets off in the first. Also some shots of the X-wings in the Death Star fight... Yeah they look pretty good.

However yeah it doesn't out weigh the negative changes of which I wont list on here for the sake of time. Plus you already know them.

I hope that George will eventually return but I think this drop into the low budget indy place he's off to may do him some good as a film maker. Get him back to his roots. I mean, ladies and gents, watch some interviews of him from the 80's are least round the time of the originals. He looks like a man with a genuine love for the industry. Be nice to have the old George back.

Twilight_guy:
And then thousands of fanboys who have an overdeveloped sense of identity in other people's work literally ripped the artist out of his artwork with there complaining. Congratulations internet you whined so hard you made an artist give up. You sad sacks can go and be happy in your notions of purity over a series of films that you in no way contributed and yet are so central to your life that you still bitch about them after decades. Ah but why do I even bother clearly bitching louder makes you more important and I'm sure I'll hear plenty of that in response to this post.

On a less deeply cynical and blind rage filled note, in an alternate universe somewhere where people support what George Lucas did with the movie the internet is weeping right now.

As someone who is fairly optimistic and still enjoys even the stuff people say was bad about star wars I must say you're stance on the subject is all wrong. They are over entitled but george lucas is a person who has made legitimate mistakes that needed addressing.

WhiteTigerShiro:

Samus Aaron:
Who the hell cares that Lucas altered his films? Is he not entitled to create his stories as he wishes? Further, his edits are so minor that they're barely noticeable at all, and any person who hasn't seen the unaltered versions wouldn't think any less of the altered versions. I really don't see why Lucas is so hated despite everything he has accomplished.

1. Because they aren't HIS films, they're OUR films. Once you release a movie/game/etc to the public, it's no longer just YOUR movie/game/etc. Same reason that (some) fans of TF2 got so annoyed when it turned into "Hat Fortress 2". Because THEIR game (regardless of who made it) was given a dramatic shift in its focus. So why do I hate that Lucas keeps altering "his" films? Because as a result, he's altering MY film. Hence why I still don't own a single Star Wars DVD.

2. Because after years and years and years, Lucas FINALLY gives Star Wars fans what they want (Star Wars on DVD), but then pisses on our years of looking forward to it by forcing the changes down our throats. At least in the VHS days you had the option of watching the originals, watching the remastered versions without changes, or watching the brand new versions with the new scenes tossed-in. These days it's either the new versions with ALL the changes in them, or dusting-off your old VCR to watch the originals.

Oh, and don't give me this "minor changes" BS. Yeah sure, on their own each change isn't that big of a deal, but we're talking about at least a dozen changes. Not to mention that as minor as I might admit to them being, they're still niggling annoyances that I shouldn't have to deal with when wanting to enjoy a movie.

"MY" films? No, my friend, the Star Wars films are not yours. They do not belong to you. They are the property of George Lucas (as far as I know), and being his property, he can do to them what he wishes. You are not entitled to someone else's work. The memories may be yours, but if Lucas wants to change his films he can do as he wants, and those memories will stay the same. It's not like Lucas is just sitting in his underground lair, thinking of how he can ruin the lives of his most devoted fans.

Oh, and Lucas is not "forcing the changes down your throats." It's YOUR decision if you want to buy it or not, and if not, you still have the VHS tapes unaltered and just as you remember. And your suggestion that "I shouldn't have to deal with" Lucas's changes? It just sounds so pompous.

Forgive me if I have sounded harsh, but it's no more harsh than the Lucas-hate of many diehard star wars fans. Realize that even if Lucas doesn't re-release the Star Wars movies exactly as you want, you'll still have the original VHS tapes, and, lacking that, the memories. Sure maybe those memories won't be as HD as they could have been, but they will always be there. Maybe if fans had been more positive with their criticism, presenting their grievances in a more constructive way, Lucas would have reciprocated and given you what you want. But I guess it's too late for that, so we'll just have to live and let live.

Who knows, maybe when he dies someone will give us good a better trilogy than what we got last time.