Was George Lucas right?

Solution
Whenever I talk to people about Star Wars, their enjoyment seems to entirely hinge on whether they watched it as kids and what movies they watched as kids. If you had parents like mine who refused to let you watch the prequels because they thought they were shit, then you also probably found the prequels to be shit when you watched them as a teen/adult while still enjoying the OT. Yet most people I know who are my age and grew up with the Prequels think they're awesome, and are ambivalent about the OT. Give it a decade and gen Alpha will be talking about how amazing episodes 7-9 were and how the OT, prequels, and whatever Disney shits out next are garbage in comparison.
TLDR: He's right and it is for kids. Those kids then grow up...
I would argue that (gotta get in the habit of using more direct language) It’s a massive cope on Lucas’ part, and he’s retroactively changing the intended demographic from a general audience to specifically a kids audience to justify why the prequels were poorly received.
While Lucas did start using the argument more in response to poor reception of the prequels, Lucas had been saying Star Wars was made for kids since the '70's. Lucas seemed surprised by the extent to which Star Wars resonated with adults.
 
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Whenever I talk to people about Star Wars, their enjoyment seems to entirely hinge on whether they watched it as kids and what movies they watched as kids. If you had parents like mine who refused to let you watch the prequels because they thought they were shit, then you also probably found the prequels to be shit when you watched them as a teen/adult while still enjoying the OT. Yet most people I know who are my age and grew up with the Prequels think they're awesome, and are ambivalent about the OT. Give it a decade and gen Alpha will be talking about how amazing episodes 7-9 were and how the OT, prequels, and whatever Disney shits out next are garbage in comparison.
TLDR: He's right and it is for kids. Those kids then grow up and have to convince themselves that their version of Star Wars isn't for kids because nostalgia tells them to still enjoy it as an adult, while all the other movies are for kids, or are otherwise shit for various reasons
 
Solution
lucas can cope all he wants, the star wars prequel trilogy is and will always be absurdly bad
For as bad as the sequels ended up being, they still demonstrate an understanding of basic concepts like editing and pacing and cinematography and the language of film. They're bad movies when viewed overall, but they clearly understand how a movie is supposed to function on a moment-by-moment, shot-by-shot basis.

The prequels really do fail on a level that fundamental. Lucas shot those films like it was his first time doing it. I'd say they're like student films given $100 million budgets, but that would actually be unfair to a lot of student films that exhibit a ton more vision and style and just competence generally.
 
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All children love ham-fisted allegories for the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War.
I haven't watched them so I have no idea how accurate a depiction that is. But how many kids played Bioshock not having a clue who Ayn Rand was?
Just because there's some gay political allegory involved doesn't mean children aren't the target demographic.
 
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