Voss Caltrez said:
Geonosis looks too much like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom/Mars. Younger audiences wouldn’t catch the reference, but I did, and it took me out of the movie.Maybe it reminded you of the Barsoom from your own imagination but for others probably not. It’s just another red planet. Vulcan being a red planet doesn’t take me out of the end of ST3. Of all the multitudinous things wrong with AOTC, this seems an odd one.
Personally, I found that Tatooine looked too much like Tunisia, which really took me out of Star Wars.
Red planet + coliseum battle + Frank Frazetta illustrated Barsoom-like creature + similar looking Barsoomians. That’s more than just another red planet.
But I’m aware that the whole of Star Wars is borrowed material: Flash Gordon, Dune, etc.