Personally I hate the prequels. Other than the pod race (which really has nothing to do with Star Wars) and the creation of Darth Maul, there was nothing at all about them that I can find anything good to say. Wooden acting, tired script, humourless jokes and a plot that didn't belong in a children's film.
The sequels on the other hand I thought were enjoyable to watch. They weren't as good as the original movies, but they didn't leave me with the sick feeling that I had when I came out of the cinema having watched Phantom Menace. The funny bits were funny (the bit in Force Awakens when the Stormtroopers about turn when hearing Kylo Wren losing it. BB8 was a nice alternative to R2D2 and C3PO, the actors had better scripts (and probably as a result of that) seemed to buy into their roles better.
Obviously the prequels aren't perfect, they aren't the original trilogy, but being made almost 40 years later, and by a whole set of new people, they are as good as could be expected (at least as far as I am concerned).
The one really great, and (for me at least) completely unexpected bonus from the Disney buy out was Rogue One. Honestly, I think it's the best Star Wars movie after Empire Strikes Back. Apart from the beginning bit when we are thrown around the galaxy from planet to planet (surely a Director's Cut should have fixed this by now?) the movie is full of dark humour and shows both the Rebels and Empire as fallible people. The action scenes are brilliant, the humour is funny (in a dark way), the Darth Vader scene is arguably the one time in the whole series of movies that we see him as a the bad-ass villain, and realise the TRUE power of the Dark Side of the Force. The whole thing was so splendidly done.
As for selling back to Lucas. Well Disney have made billions from the new movies and spin offs, they've increased brand awareness as well as subscribers to their paid channels, they've no doubt made tons of cash in the re-re-re-release of the previous movies on DVD, Blu Ray, 4k etc and all the cash from merchandising. I reckon they must have made back the money they paid out to Lucas, and then some.
But you get to the stage where you've done everything you can with the franchise. You can only re-release the same movies so many times, especially as there are no more formats or extras that can be used as a reason to do so. You can only merchandise so many goods from Darth Vader bins (no really, I have one) to money boxes (ditto), lava lamps (me again), toasters, bed sheets etc etc. You can only have so many spin-offs until you get to the stage when you might as well just make a brand new science fiction show than use character from the Star Wars universe that hasn't been done yet (it's a real pity that we didn't have a Lando tv series, but maybe that was included within the Han Solo show).
Disney have had what they wanted from the franchise, and they still have a product that is worth as much - if not more - than what they paid for it. Which is pretty shrewd business.
But do Disney really need the cash? Do they really need the hassle of having to make tv series/movies that are held up to close scrutiny/criticism in a way that none of their other franchises are?
I'm sure that Lucas would like to by back the rights to what he considers as his baby. And it wouldn't surprise me if he does get it back for a much lower price than he sold it for, with the proviso that Disney are able to have access to the whole library of existing material, and anything new created from the material created after the sell off has to meet with the approval of Lucas (as well as him getting a cut of the proceeds).
But who knows how other movies will turn out? Maybe Lucas might be a consultant for current or future projects?
