Feb Login - Sith Assasin

Lucas is a master storyteller, and his use of camera is part of that. :)

First you have too know that Lucas is inspired by, and a big fan of, art films that, like silent films, tell their story by picture and music alone. They often have simple camere placements and movements.
One of his big inspirations is Arthur Lipsetts 21-87: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFn-NobVaoI
And he presented, with Francis Ford Coppola, the Quatsi Trilogy.

Another huge inspiration for SW is the old Flash Gordon Serials. (And other similar series/movies)
Yes, he mostly keeps it simple, and that is the point. It also helps him tell a story with the camera like others don't. (Not to mention that it insures that the eudince can actually see what is happening, contrary to fast movements and shakycam.)

Take the Pod Race... He shot that sequence unlike other SW action sequenses and it tells a story when you think about two of the pillars of SW, history and mythology.
In many mythologies directions matter. Left=the past and Right=the future.
Now look at how the films that specific sequence. Alll the camera placements and movements are based on that concept.
We see a view from the back, showing where Anakin is going, we see a view from the front, showing where he is coming from, and we see a left too right movement.
At no time does the camera break from this.

With just camera and music we are told that Anakin is, in this point in the story, moving from his past life to his potential new life as a Jedi. He just has to reach the finishline.

It's simply but it has meaning. Which is more than what can be said for Abrams nostalgia-porn in TFA.

I also agree with Professor Camille Paglia (University of the Arts in Philadelphia) in that the end of Ep 3 is the greatest work of art in the last few decades.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaW72ZchK6M