Sorry, agree to disagree. Tolkien actually knew what he was doing. He had a plan. He actually did create a world, complete with languages and all. Lucas, while he did get the ball rolling, should thank his lucky stars that other, more talented people created the expanded universe that you mentioned. For a great documentary, watch "The People vs. George Lucas". That's the truth right there. George Lucas lucked his way into a successful movie (he originally just wanted to do experimental art movies, not narrative ones). Then Star Wars got commercialized, and that's when everything got out of control for him. He was pressured to do more movies, but he had no ideas and had to ask science fiction novelists and other writers for help. These are facts.
In the end, I think Lucas was insecure about Empire Strikes Back, the movie that he had the least creative control over, was declared the greatest installment of the franchise. He HAD to make the prequels, so the attention would be back on him. And all he proved is that he just doesn't work as a writer or director. He is an idea man (to a degree), and nothing more. Yes, JJ Abrams was lazy in making a beat for beat remake of A New Hope (which I don't mind, because ANH is my least favorite of the original trilogy), but as you mentioned, it was well made. The acting was good, the dialogue wasn't cringe worthy, the camerawork was more creative, and it was overall entertaining. You can't seriously say the same of the prequels, with its eye rolling bad dialogue, the wooden and uneven acting, the soap opera style shot-reverse shot direction, and let's not forget, they are also guilty of copying plot points from the original movies. Apologetic fans like to say this is "the movies are rhyming, like poetry", but in honesty, it's called lazy writing. "X worked here, so we'll do it again here, but we'll change it a bit so it's not obvious". Lucas just did not have a plan, and he didn't even understand why his creation was so popular. He was just throwing sh*t at the wall and hoping it would stick, and the producers were too scared to tell him he was wrong.
Yes, I want the new movies to have original stories to tell, however, I don't see why blaming Disney for mass producing the movies the wrong way, when Star Wars is infamous for being the movie that turned the film industry into the commercial and merchandise driven machine that it currently is. It would have happened no matter which studio Lucas sold the rights to. Ironically, ANH will always be copyrighted by 20th Century Fox, so Disney doesn't truly own the franchise, even with the rights to the sequels and prequels being converted over in three more years. Sure, they could have used some ideas that Lucas had, but it's not like he's some kind of mastermind who had his finger on the pulse of his Frankenstein monster. While I understand you don't like TFA for whatever reasons, please don't be a prequels apologist.
