Why do great directors lose it so badly?

Rating: Null/10 (19 August 2001)

George Lucas, like his peer Francis Ford Coppolla, was a true visionary. These men created cinema that will live forever. Now, I thought one would get wiser and more insightful-more skilled and honed and with mortality ever so tapping on their shoulders-the work from these two men should be more fascinating than ever. That, for some reason, is just not the case. Like "The Godfather Part III," "The Phantom Menace" fails to capture the visceral quality of its predecessors. Hey, that's putting nicely. These directors have lost it, big time. What really stuns me is that they both forgot their roots as young filmmakers who knew that the magic of fresh and exciting narrative was more powerful than all the special effects and sounds one could muster. Watching "The Phantom Menace," I had the same feeling as watching "The Godfather Part III" for the first time-incredible disappointment. I think that these directors, who I use to look up to, are idiots now, because these sequels didn't have to be great, or as great as their originals, but how could they, for god's sake, simply suck?