George Lucas Critical Of The New Star Wars Film

While many critics have responded positively to JJ Abrams's take on Star Wars, one particular industry figure seems rather less impressed.

 George Lucas has criticized the "retro" tone of The Force Awakens and lamented his own lack of involvement in it.

 Speaking to television talk-show host and journalist Charlie Rose, Lucas quipped that he had sold his "kids to the white slavers that take these things".

 "They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that,” he said. 

“They weren’t that keen to have me involved anyway, but if I get in there, I’m just going to cause trouble, because they’re not going to do what I want them to do.

 And I don’t have the control to do that any more, and all I would do is muck everything up.

 And so I said, ‘OK, I will go my way, and I’ll let them go their way.’”

 Film-maker defends his six Star Wars movies, saying he constantly tried to innovate ‘with different planets, different spaceships.’

 The film-maker, who oversaw both the groundbreaking original Star Wars trilogy, which hit cinemas between 1977 and 1983, and the much-maligned 1999-2005 prequel trilogy, confirmed that studio Disney had not wanted his involvement in the new installment.

Lucas defended his vision for the six previous Star Wars films, which he said involved constant innovation. “I worked very hard to make them completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships – you know, to make it new,” he said, pointing out the failure of a number of rival space movies that attempted to repeat the formula in the late 70s and early 80s.

“When Star Wars came out, everyone said, ‘Oh it’s just a silly movie with a bunch of space battles and stuff. It’s not real. There’s nothing behind it.’ And I said … ‘There’s more to it than that.

It’s much more complicated than that.’ But nobody would listen,” said Lucas. “So the spaceships and that part of the science fantasy, whatever, got terribly abused. And of course, everybody went out and made spaceship movies. And they were all horrible, and they all lost tons of money.”