It’s amazing, and really quite sad, that nearly a decade after the release of The Phantom Menace, people are still complaining about George Lucas. Sure, he also messed up his Indiana Jones franchise last summer, but whatever, there’s nothing we can do about it except skip out on further Lucas productions. The diehards are still apparently with him enough to have gotten the Clone Wars TV series renewed, to continually dress up in Star Wars costumes for comic conventions, and to eventually even buy Fanboys when it hits DVD (the movie’s terrible $200,000 gross in its first week isn’t so much a reflection on fan interest so much as it’s the fault of The Weinstein Co.’s distinterest).

So, is there really any reason for the film The People vs. George Lucas, which is still a year away from release, to exist? Hasn’t the internet supplied plenty of documentation on the hatred of Lucas over the past ten years? Now that we have an early trailer for the film to look at, here’s what the blogosphere has to say on the doc and the issue in general:

• “Despite my personal problems with Lucas’ later work, I don’t actually hate him for it. I’m dissatisfied with the newer products, obviously, but if I saw him wounded on the side of the road, I wouldn’t let him die. I mean, the man gave us the original trilogy and Indiana Jones.” — excellently stated at Topless Robot.
• Spout.com marketing man Chris Thilk tells Lucas haters to “get a grip” at his blog Movie Marketing Madness: “You obviously aren’t capable of enjoying a movie for what it *is* and instead are always looking for what a movie *isn’t* and for that I feel sorry for you.”
• Commenting on Defamer, someone named ‘taco-flavored-kisses’ sees the real motivation behind the doc: “If anything, this doc looks like an homage to George Lucas. The haters depicted only serve to balance out the praise and keep it from being an ‘I’m obsessed with Star Wars and this is the only way I can express it’ film.”
• Yes, that is film critic Glenn Kenny you see in the trailer, as he points out on Some Came Running. No, he’s not necessarily one of the complainers; rather, he’s in the film as an expert on the Star Wars “franchise’s impact on the larger culture.”
• Hopefully Nikki Finke isn’t referring to Kenny in the last part of this quote: “Those interviewed include Lucas intimate and producer Gary Kurtz, Sandy Lieberson (former head of production at 20th Century Fox), Dale Pollock (author of Skywalking), producer Anthony Waye, and David Prowse (aka Darth Vader). But also, sadly, second-rate film reviewers and writers. Presumably, the top ones were too scared to diss George.”
• Commenting on Finke’s post is MovingPictureBlog’s Joe Leydon: “I am the one who’s on screen with the “anti-Christ” quote. I’m sure that when the finished documentary appears, it will be obvious that what I’m saying is that this is the label that has been applied to Lucas by many folks — unfairly. As for the second-rate label — well, hell, it’s still a work in progress. I’m sure there’s still time for them to get around to talking to the third-raters.” He also has a post about the trailer here.
• From the Denver Post’s Celebrity Bull blog: “So someone finally put together a film about how we all feel concerning George Lucas destroying our childhood. I hope whoever made this film comes back to it in 20 years and makes a special edition.” This quote seems to be from another complainer, but in a way it also points out that, given the chance, any filmmaker might do the same for the right price.

And here is the trailer: