Lightsaber fights should be like Old Republic cinematics

It depends from the situation and opponents)
I Liked what they did in VII

 

I don't want to see "dirty" fights, but that's just me!

 

I just want to a situation where a Jedi can take on a powerful sith without help. All the movies rarely show Jedi on equal footing with the Sith.

 

Kenobi bested Anakin (who was Sith at that moment).
Luke bested Vader.
Kenobi bested Maul.
Anakin bested Dooku.
Windu (arguably) bested Palpatine.

 

I'd like to see something like this one in an upcoming movie :

 

I hope they are new, the art of dueling has evolved over the years

 

The duels will probably get better unless the production crew are trying to channel the Old Trilogy fill entirely. If so that would be wrong given all the technology and such we have now as opposed to the late 70's and early 80's. Still, I believe the duel came off somewhat retro because neither Finn, Rey or Ren are at the height of their skill sets when it comes to saber fighting.

 

I think referring to the lightsaber fights as "retro" is just dead wrong. The lightsaber fights in the OT were a tool to tell a story and internalization of the characters, it was not so much the fights itself but more so the interaction between the characters and also using camera angles and certain shots to underline those. For example; I think one of the greatest shots in cinematic history in my opinion is in The Empire Strikes Back between Luke and Vader when Luke walks down a corridor at Bespin and Vader appears. You only see Vaders shoulder and his lightsaber being turned on. It underlines Vaders strength and power in TESB, more than anything else, it also reflects a shift in the duel between him and Luke. After this particular shot Vader decides to "mean business" with Luke and from him toying around with him, he really starts to pound him into submission using strong and heavy swings. You get a sense of fatigue within Luke not being able to deflect those heavy hits anymore. The psychology of this is absolutely genius. It is absolutely impossible to have those kind of moments if you lean on technology and as a result get perfectly choreographed fighting scenes like in the prequels which have more similarities with dancing with the stars than anything else.

Also, take Star Wars out of the equation here and look at sword fights on a larger scale in other movies and books. They were always about what I described above using TESB as an example. They were never about the sword fight itself, the hypercharged way to film duels using "technology" to tell a story rather than using the characters to tell a story is a receipt for disaster.

 

Completely agree. I enjoy the fights in the PT, but after quite a few viewings they become a bit... hm... meh. Because I'm not precisely emotionally invested as much, I'm more looking at the flashy acrobatics. Cool, but still...

The scene you described in ESB, as well as the reversal in ROTJ, are still exciting even after decades of viewing them. Had to pop into youtube to see the ESB one again right now, just for the tingles down my spine.

As for TFA, I thought it was a pretty good mix of the both. Some flashiness, but still retaining the gritty personal nature of the fight.

 

Save the Old Rep fights for a story film set during that time period. We're bound to get something that took place long before the three trilogies. I think the new films should be organic. Some might call that boring but we're back to square one again like with the OT. I do agree that OR fights are far better executed than the PT riverdance. Luke should be able to fight off the newbs with one hand not having to move around too much Vader style.