George Lucas makes places and creatures we want to explore, then too often stops the adventure to explain them. We admire the invention, but his direction becomes less reliable when somebody has to speak.
Fi1m perspective
The racing in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) is lively enough to make the long conversations around it feel longer. Lucas writes as well as directs, and too often leaves his characters explaining things when we want to follow them into trouble. We grew impatient with those explanations because the bursts of action had shown how enjoyable this adventure could be. The creatures and places suggest a director still eager to give us something unfamiliar. He simply makes us wait too long between the good bits.
Before the serial adventures came the dystopian THX 1138 (1971), his first feature, expanded from a student film. American Graffiti (1973) looked back at 1960s youth, before Star Wars (1977) brought his interest in serials and mythology into science fiction. He went on to write and executive produce sequels, then returned to directing after 22 years with The Phantom Menace. Coming-of-age stories recur in his work, which helps explain the young central figure in that film. It also makes the failure to give that youngster companions worth following harder to excuse.
In Minions & Monsters (2026), he voices himself in a brief gag that sounds better as an idea than it plays. We enjoyed the film, but his appearance is a small disappointment.
Lucas has made adventures without directing them: on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), he contributed the story and served as executive producer, with Steven Spielberg directing. His pioneering work in visual effects and sound through Industrial Light & Magic is another substantial contribution to cinema. The care given to the design and music in The Phantom Menace is plain, but it does not make the characters more engaging. Lucas can make the racing and lightsaber fighting count; he struggles to make the people worth accompanying between them. An existing attachment to the saga may help with the waiting, but we would not choose this as a newcomer's introduction to his films.
Biography
George Lucas is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. He created the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm until selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012.
After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with Francis Ford Coppola. He wrote and directed THX 1138 (1971) and American Graffiti (1973). His next film, Star Wars (1977), became the highest-grossing film at the time and won six Academy Awards. He produced and co-wrote its sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). With Steven Spielberg, he created, produced and co-wrote the Indiana Jones films beginning with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
Lucas voices a character in the 2026 animated film Minions & Monsters.
