One critic begs and pleads for George Lucas to PLEASE stop already ...

By Jim Emerson
Special to MSN Movies

IfGeorge Lucashad given up directing after his first theatrical feature, "THX 1138," we would not have had "American Graffiti" or "Star Warsas it existed when fanatical masses were camping out to see it (again and again) in the summer of 1977. Then again, we wouldn't have had "The Phantom Menace" (aka "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace") either, so there's always a bright side.

If Lucas had given up producing (or, more accurately, "executive producing," which could mean anything from developing a project to slapping his name on an already finished film), we might have been spared "Howard the Duck" but we wouldn't have had the "Indiana Jones" movies. The seriousness of the trade-off there largely depends on whether you've actually tried to watch "Howard the Duck."

Ever since the very first (er, fourth)"Star Wars" movie, Lucas has been talking about getting back to making those "small, personal" movies he claims he's always wanted to do. But for his last 30 years as a producer he has devoted himself almost entirely to "Star Wars"- and "Indiana Jones"-related projects: "The Ewok Adventure," "Ewoks" (animated TV series), "Droids" (animated TV adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO), Star Tours (Star Wars-based Disney amusement park ride), "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones" (TV), "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (TV series), "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones" (home video), "Treasure of the Hidden Planet" (set between "Star Wars" Episodes III and IV), "Star Wars: Clone Wars" (animated TV series, 2003-2005), "The Clone Wars" (another animated TV series), "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (2008 video game), "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (soon-to-be-released animated feature film), "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" (video game), "Untitled Star Wars TV Series" (live action, scheduled to begin in 2009). He also reportedly plans to reprocess all the "Star Wars" films with Industrial Light and Magic's Dimensionalization software and reissue them yet again in "3-D" versions.

That's not all of them, but you get the picture. After 22 years of product management, Lucas returned to directing with the unfortunate "Phantom Menace," and completed the prequel trilogy with "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith" between 1999 and 2005. Were these the "small, personal" films he'd been waiting all this time to create? Apparently not. He's still talking about an urge to get small, get personal, with his movies.

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