DudeGuyMan wrote:RedImperator wrote:I am happy for you that you enjoyed it, but I am not entirely certain how this is supposed to relate to the rest of the thread.
Because the thread is basically just a "Oh the way Luke tied his shoes in the OT was so much more meaningful and iconic than the way Anakin did in the PT, stupid Lucas!" circlejerk,
lolwut? There was like, an actual debate going on, and what I thought was a fairly interesting discussion of the symbolic value lightsabers have throughout the movies. I mean, sometimes threads need bombs tossed in them, and you're a pretty good bomb thrower and I appreciate that valuable service, but this thread wasn't one of them.
Also, honestly, "LOL nerds lol box office" doesn't get a lot of points for originality, you know?
Closer to the topic, I just want to point out that the fight choreography in the OT was shit and ass. After the epic throwdown at the end of ROTS, the rematch in ANH is just ridiculous to watch. It really does look like an elderly man slowly fighting a cripple. Luke running around that sail barge swinging like a five year old girl with a wiffle bat? Ugh. Give me bored-looking Jedi effortlessly whipping through CGI droids any day.
Pretty sure no one disputes that. I think it's more debatable that the prequels were well served by so
much twirly-choreography spectacle. There were what, five set-piece lightsaber fights in ROTS? Four? It's been a while and I can't remember if there was much of on in Palpatine's office. THe fight coreography at Mustafar was excellent, but I think it loses something for having come after so much other good fight coreography.
I will disagree with the people who don't like the first fight in TPM. That was the first time we saw the Jedi in 20 years, and the first time ever seeing them in their prime. That fight needed to be a brutal robot slaughter because it needed to establish a baseline for what the Jedi could do.
PS I don't give TPM a lot of credit, but it definitely got this right re: symbolism. To the audience watching TPM, the Jedi and their tools, especially the lightsabers, carry a ton of symbolic meaning. This is what Luke spent three movies aspiring to, this is the weapon of the man who can save the galaxy and the man who can destroy it. So we see Jedi show up, and we know shit's about to get serious.
Well, the Nemoidians see this, and have the
exact same reaction we do. The lightsaber to them must be something like a badge, a cross, a fasces, and a wicked blade all in one--a symbol of the law, of the power of the state, spiritual authority, and a non-zero chance you're about to have your shit completely ruined. Palpatine basically had to remind them they had a spaceship full of robots before they did anything.
It's just this neat moment where the characters on screen and the audience are sharing a reaction to the same magic. It wouldn't work quite that way if TPM was the first movie released or you had never seen the OT, but I saw it in theaters after practically wearing out my OT VHS tapes, and it definitely worked for me.