Two of the biggest stories populating the movie blogs this week have to do with George Lucas. Well, the Fanboys controversy has less to do with the Star Wars director, but obviously he’s connected in some way. The other story has to do with Lucas’ statement that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is (gasp) just a movie. Here is the quote, from USA Today, that’s putting fear into the minds of movie geeks throughout the galaxy:

“When you do a movie like this, a sequel that’s very, very anticipated, people anticipate ultimately that it’s going to be the Second Coming,” Lucas says. “And it’s not. It’s just a movie. Just like the other movies. You probably have fond memories of the other movies. But if you went back and looked at them, they might not hold up the same way your memory holds up.”

Yes, he goes on to reference the reception of The Phantom Menace, which is obviously fair, but also a bit unbalanced. Certainly our disappointment with the Star Wars prequels had enough to do with their stand-alone quality (or lack thereof), in addition to but separate from them coming with such high expectations.

However, I do commend Lucas for defending such a contextual issue ahead of time. I’ve been so excited about the new Indiana Jones movie that I’ve forgotten that I should enter with lowered expectations. And not because I think it’s going to be awful. All the bloggers and geeks now fearing that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is going to be bad, or is at least not on the level of the previous films, should calm down. Yeah, maybe it won’t be completely on par with the rest, but Lucas’ statement should not be decoded as an apology for its suckage. It was simply an acknowledgment of how unfortunately religious and critical and cynical his fans have become.

Here is how some others have responded to Lucas:

Rodney at The Movie Blog agrees that Lucas is simply saying the sequel will be great, just not as great as our dreams would fool us into thinking it could be. He claims we should always have low expectations in life (he claims he never gives his wife flowers because of this), and offers a relative concept: “Would we have forgiven Darth Flannel if he had warned us about JarJar? Probably not, but the gesture would have been nice.”

Anne Thompson at Variety says Lucas has made a big PR mistake, claiming to “hear the groans from the Presidio all the way down here on Wilshire.” She also references another recent quote from Lucas, in Entertainment Weekly, that both agrees and disagrees with this new statement: “… we didn’t make it bigger and better, we made it exactly the same. So if you loved the other ones, you’ll love this one. But if you expect to have F-14s flying under freeways — that isn’t there. It’s just another period adventure movie with this wacky archaeologist.”

Erik Davis at Cinematical pays more attention to his issue with Lucas’ statement, also in the USA Today article, about not needing to do this just for the money. I like the Spaceballs nod best: “Yeah, thanks George for reminding us that half a billion dollars (or more, probably) is, like, the equivalent of a couple nickels and dimes for you. Indiana Jones and the Quest for More Money No One Needs arrives in theaters on May 22.”

Seth at Defamer has a similar focus: “True, when you’re worth $3 billion, another $50 million give or take is hardly going to make or break you. That fanboy-fuck-you-fortune allows Lucas and his collaborators the luxury of perhaps getting a tiny bit experimental with supposdly sacred texts; it’s only once you let go of preconceived notions like “justifiable sequels” and “good movies,” and allow yourself to truly respond to your creative instinct to, say, add a patois-spouting duck-ape or Mexican Rerun into the mix, that cinematic alchemy can truly occur.”

And just in case Lucas does think the movie sucks, Fark.com commenter “Banacek” offers these hopeful words: “Well, since Lucas has crappy taste, if he doesn’t like it maybe it will be good?”