By Brian Lowry

Critics weren’t kind when the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy first hit theaters, deriding not just the silliness of Jar Jar Binks but a plot that constructed a science-fiction epic around, of all things, an intergalactic trade dispute and the political mechanics of a republic imploding from within.

Yet as the 20th anniversary of climactic chapter “Revenge of the Sith” nears (marked by its return to theaters), those aspects resonate differently amid President Donald Trump’s tariff-induced trade crisis and rising authoritarianism — cause to wonder whether everyone owes George Lucas an apology for turning “Star Wars” into “Trade Wars.”