In the book <span class=“Bold”>The Cinema of George Lucas</span>, there is two photos of George Lucas, on the set of <span class=“Bold”>The Phantom Menace</span>, wearing a black t-shirt, with a white text on it that says:

<div class=“PostQuote”>STAR WARS™:
“…a film with comic-book characters, an unbelievable story, no political or social commentary, lousy acting, preposterous dialogue, and a ridiculously simplistic morality. In other words, a BAD MOVIE.”</div>

Maybe, with the prequels, Lucas tried to prove that sentence wrong?

(by the way, the quoted text above comes from this 1997 New Yorker article)