Why Don't Fans Appreciate George Lucas?

Are you referring to Ridley's constant teeth gnashing or Boyega channeling Chris Tucker?

I think it's a combination of factors. As someone else said the fact that you can only get the OT in special edition (which Lucas is responsible for) is unpopular. But most of it centers around the prequels.

1. The prequels were polarizing to the fanbase. They weren't universally loved like the OT was. Some fans liked them and some fans absolutely hated them. There was a variety of complaint reasons: Political dialogue, flat acting performances, bad or inconsistent pacing, CGI, Jar Jar Binks, different aesthetically from OT, not what some expected the characters or story to be... in addition to other factors. You could fairly call some of the complaints nitpicking but the biggest legitimate problem may have been Lucas directing. At times it seemed he didn't get enough out of his actors or the wrong kind of performances. A different director might've also improved the pacing. (The pacing of politics is comparably better in the CWAS directed by Dave Filoni).

Since Lucas collaborated less and controlled more on the prequels he got more blame from disapproving fans.



2. Disney publicly rejected Lucas script for TFA. That certainly increased the perception of him being disrespected. Disney and Kathleen Kennedy talked out of both sides of their mouth. On one hand they refer to him as the guru, the foundation and authority on SW. On the other hand they reject most of the contributions and ideas that they solicit from him; taking a hardline stance on the character and story agendas they have for the new trilogy. Disney has been very obtuse about the contradiction.



3. Revisionist history from professional prequels trolls. IMO probably the biggest factor. Social media and film industry hacks like Plinkett/RLM and the makers of The People vs. George Lucas built notoriety off of nitpicking every element of the prequels and trashing and demonizing Lucas reputation. In addition they exaggerated the level of hatred for the prequels by constantly hi-lighting examples of it, and also portraying it as a black and white matter of intelligence.

They've created cult followings that have made it popular to disrespect Lucas. These talentless hacks have nothing else to show for on their resumé. There's no limit to their tactics. They have negatively dissected Lucas and the prequels to a level no other filmmaker or group of movies has ever been taken! While some criticism has been based on legitimate evidence or factors, most of it has been based on false logic.

(One such broad example is giving the credit of the success of the OT to everyone else but George Lucas. The writing success is given to Kasdan. The film success is given to other directors and to model makers and editors such as Lucas ex-wife. But Lucas was the one who commissioned the re-edit. And these other people were the talent Lucas hired for those positions. Only Lucas has ever been scrutinized with this false logic criteria. By comparison no fan of JJ Abrams is crediting his success on TFA to his team that was hired around him or he collaborated with). And it would take a 40 paragraph manifesto to list all the false logic criteria and arguments employed by these professional prequel/Lucas trolls. Even some professional critics will make statements that reflect the revisionist history created by them that the prequels were and are universally hated. In addition to the perception that Lucas is somehow a tarnished failure that should be vilified.

It's an oddly overblown dynamic that's unique to Lucas and some of the SW fanbase. Not that Lucas is above criticism but the uniqueness and level of it says something about a portion of SW fans. And that something is not good.