Completely untrue....Lucas was upset that they were taking to long with the film and it was costing too much money. He had all his money tied into the success of Empire. If Empire failed....Lucas would have failed. It didn't and created the Empire Lucas sold to Disney.
He did have problems with certain aspects of the film that he was proved wrong on. He wanted Han to say "I love you" Kersh and Ford wanted "I know".
They did a test screening and "I know" won...Lucas turned to Kersh and said keep it in the film.
In 2017 Lucas did say Empire was his least favorite but that is because it had so much riding on it to get it done.
"Empire they ran out of money. Lucas blamed Kurtz's inability to say "no" to Kershner, as the budget ballooned to £22 million. Finally, financial backers the Bank Of America called a halt. With wages to pay, Lucasfilm president Charles Weber went to First National Bank Of Boston to buy out that debt to the tune of $25 million. Lucas promised to pay back the money from his own pocket ("I will eventually pay you back, if it takes me the rest of my life"), but it took a humiliating trip to Fox (to secure their support as guarantors) for the loan to come through. When Empire was finally complete, it had cost $33 million. "
You can see why Lucas has mixed emotions about the production of Empire.
What is true is when Return of the Jedi rolled around, Empire was considered one of the best sequels of all time. Of course there will always be those who don't like a film.... but Empire was and still is regarded as a classic. People couldn't wait for Return of the Jedi as you remember. Nothing was better waiting in line for Jedi after school ended. Great time.
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