Samuel Jackson responds to TFA

The sword fights in TPM may be pleasing to the eye, but you can tell they are obviously choreographed and look just like dance routines. Too "fake".

 

With all due respect, it looks like Samuel L Jackson just regrets not being involved in a highly successful Star Wars movie like TFA and being associated instead with the awful prequels. Hence, the negativity.

 

What makes a lightsaber battle great is the dialogue and the drama, not the cheorography. It's amazing that certain people attached to SW still don't get it.

 

My point of view is that the lightsaber is a instrument of power and i icon on Star Wars movies.The ONLY two sides that use them are the Jedi and the Siths.I remember when Anakin when he was little in the TPM movie he see Qui- Gon lightsaber.He tell him..."You are a jedi knight?Kids in this era KNOW what a lightsaber is...They KNOW that is a weapon.Kids see also police officer with GUNS every day.Star Wars lightsaber duel is meaning of power and control of your point of view(light side and dark side).I remember when GL was explaining that he use light sabers fights in his movie because he love those old pirates movies(they use swords) when he was a kid.He found them nice to watch.For me i love lightsaber duel.They make the movie so GOOD to watch.Who in this world have never have a lightsaber fight with a buddy with a plastic lightsaber???Even kids or adults have.I have and i'm still a GOOD person..........Remember...This is ONLY a movie...Is fantasy to ENJOY.

 

He did want to be a part of this movie...

 

Anakin vs Obi wan is so boring. Stupids choreography, too long and the floating on those plataforms make everything worse.

Qui Gon vs. Maul and Qui Gon/Obi Wan vs. Maul are the.best fight of the PT.

 

Have to laugh at how many people come out of the woodwork with comments or comment being sought from them like they are some kind of "expert" on Star Wars.

I don't care what any of the actors from any of the films (cept TFA) think of this new movie.

 

Rick McCallum is also dense.

 

You get it my friend. Lightsaber fights were never about how pretty and how many twirls you can fit into a duel, but about the emotional exchange. One of my favorite things in the OT was the fight between Luke and Vader in ROTJ, especially near the end after Vader mentions his twin sister. Luke attacks Vader with great passion and aggression, and is hitting Vader as hard as he can and not holding anything back. This shows just how close Luke came to the dark side and it makes it even more impactful when he lays down his weapon and choses to be a Jedi, like his father before him.

As cool as the fights look in the PT, we never get anything that comes close to the emotion displayed in the older fights. Sure Qui Gon dying was sad and the Duel of Fates rocks, but when the fight between Obi Wan and Darth Maul resumes all we get is more of the same twirling, over-choreographed mess and no emotion to bring an edge to the fight.

 

This should have been the fight when the Jedi come to arrest Palpatine. Kit Fisto is as powerful a Jedi as Windu and other Grand Masters. He should've handed the would be emperor his ass to him, take him into custody, and being the cunning Sith Lord that he is, Palpatine should've turned the situation to his advantage to illustrate to Anakin how corrupt and oppressive the order has b ecome!

 

Nope, the fights should be both visually engaging and emotional. I think people mostly debate about the style of choreography, not an abundance of. For instance, a huge kung fu movie fan, I grew up with two camps of thought. There were Jackie Jan's movies, with real stunds and grounded technique vs. Jet Lee and Donnie Yen who specialized in extravagant wire work and fancy movements. Both are fine, it's just a matter of preference.

When it comes to SW universe, I like to see Kurosawa style Japanese sword fencing coupled with European Middle Ages sword fighting!

 

Of course nobody wants a crappy duel that is clunky, but you have to take each one in context. In ANH (1977), the choreography was slower because Lucas wanted the Lightsaber to be heavy like Excalibur. Then they changed it in ESB for them to be lighter so Vader is then swinging with one hand. The TFA duel is sort of clunky because you have 2 novices fighting each other, as I'm sure it will be better cheorographed for Episode 8 & 9 when they get more training.

But again, its still the dialogue that makes them memorable.

 

I thought the best fights were episode 1 (final fight), 4, 5, 6 and 7. All of those looked like real sword fights. I agree with the twirling stuff in the Obi vs. Anakin stuff, what the hell is that stupidity. I was not a big fan of how they portrayed Obi in 2 and 3. Based on the movies he was not a Jedi Master, just the luckiest damn jedi knight in the galaxy.

 

I agree! The duel in Ep. IV is arguably the simplest one, due to Alec Guinness' age they couldn't get too technical. As a child, it was my least favorite one but with age I learned to appreciate it more and more, and not for nostalgic reasons. It's a very well filmed, emotional scene that moves the plot along while expanding on the character backgrounds as well as the force. The way Guinness sells the duel with his acting makes me believe a lightsaber is a weapon to be handled with care. A single wrong stroke can prove deadly for the assailant as well as the defender.

 

i'll say it over and over...
a good fight is about visual economy.
and, on the other end of the scale - a bad fight - "diminishing returns".

the lightsaber is special. it is the weapon of a jedi.
Lucas invented it, and it became iconic.
in the original trilogy, the fights looked deadly, yet somewhat erratic.

however, in the prequels, Lucas wanted to show us "the jedi at their peak".
oh brother!
so we get "expertly trained" jedi masters, in a super over-the-top choreographed ballet.

why isn't it good? because at no point during the Anakin/Obi-Wan fight do i ever believe that either of them is trying to even injure the other...

and, what else happens when you take, like, a million twirly swings with the lightsaber?
each successive swing means less and less and less.
diminishing returns.

and dont' get me started on all the spinning, kicking, ducking, jumping.

darth maul has a deadly weapon, and yet somehow feels it necessary to kick somebody to knock them backwards..... you know, just to mix things up.
Geez Louise.

and, if you go back and watch that "awesome" darth maul fight, there are obvious moments where Obi-Wan swings low so that Maul can jump over the lightsaber.
and, swings extra high, so that he can duck the lightsaber.

i mean, younger people who grew up with the darth maul fight?

this is what that leads to:

give me the TFA duels. every day, all day, and twice on Sundays.

thanks.

 

Just in case there is single person left here who hasn't seen this:

^_^

 

Are people really getting mad at SLJ for this? They are all just novices going at it. It's on purpose that the fights look a little bit awkward and clunky. If you read the whole article he isn't taking a shot at the direction, artocs, or choreography, it's more about the characters which is perfectly fair since none of them have been to, "lightsaber fight school". (Maybe Kylo but I have no idea who he would spar with.)

 

I think that some of it was bad editing...I remember seeing A 60 Minutes interview with GL while promoting ROTS back in 2005 and he was showing the editing of that lightsaber duel on mustafar and he was talking about removing things, adding things, etc.