total lack of visual taste

Rating: Null/10 (12 February 2004)

George Lucas has come a long way from the original 1977 "Star Wars" (now called "Episode 4" by some people, as if we had to take Lucas' megalomania seriously). "Star Wars" was a wonderful movie, while "The Phantom Menace" is just as awful as its title.
Lucas' directing style is probably lost forever. Remember the brilliant use of montage, music and color codes in "Star Wars"? Except for the trademark editing style, which is still sort of beautiful, it's all gone. Instead of the use of color (black, white and red for the bad guys, earth-tones for the good ones), we are bombarded with kitschy pastel colors like it all was an ad for LSD-flavored chewing gum. Instead of the ground-breaking, fascinating and still mostly convincing special effects, we have cheesy CGI monsters squeezed into every scene, fitting or not. Indeed, the one distinguishing feature of this movie as well as its sequel is the total lack of visual taste.