The Episode III spoiler-filled reviews and impressions thread

[The Former DMiller]

Complex and busy backgrounds have become a staple in cinema since Fritz Lang's Metropolis. That is of course not the only way to do it as there have been plenty of directors with a more minimalist style, but Lucas follows the tradition of Orson Welles and Akira Kurosawa and therefor uses very visually stimulating areas. An important element to this is the sense of being overwhelmed. :)

I still haven't seen Metropolis even though a lot of people have recommended it to me. Anyway, I guess if that was the effect Lucas was going for I can't really fault him much for it, but I just think those shots introducing the cities and locales would be more visually appealing if you were allowed to focus on something instead of having that overwhelming feeling with ships flying everywhere.