The Maul vs. Qui-Gon fight? I'm gonna have the hot take that I don't really think a mainline Star Wars movie, and I'm counting the original trilogy here, has ever had a swordfight I would consider all that good. That said, I do think that fight is pretty overrated in a general sense
The music absolutely carries it on its shoulders, and people went apeshit for "omg a double-bladed lightsaber," but I just don't think very much of the choreo, the environment, etc
It's in that place of "a bunch of shitty assholes complained about this too much, and it makes earnestly critiquing it hard because you don't want to get lumped in with those guys," but yeah, it's not good
I personally think it's good because it demonstrates the character of each of its participants through their actions. Not the best there is, but one of the better prequel fights in that regard.
Boring. Three guys do highly choreographed flippy things at each other for like 20 minutes, I don't know who one of them is, and the closest I come to caring is when Qui-Gon dies. And even then that doesn't do much for me. Duel of the Fates slaps though
The only good sword fight in the whole Star Wars franchise is the very first one, where Ben and Darth vaguely wave their sabers around and the editors have to point the beams in the right direction in post /s
Like, the original trilogy sets the bar for choreography quite low anyways so it is eye-popping for that era as we'd droll and clap for peanuts, but it is absolutely carried by affective memory.
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I'd have obi wan bailed out by like a platoon of naboo soldiers that arrive on scene that force maul to retreat, last words being "another time, jedi"
Does it entirely hold up? Eh.
The characters aren't interesting enough for strong characterization to come through (though Ray Parks' physicality is p strong).
(Including Maul & Obi-wan's Twin Suns fight which is 10 seconds long)
It solidly lives in the "this blew 12 year old me's mind" zone but is just alright now.
And that's fine imo.
https://youtu.be/t0qH2IaSjEU?si=6YUu8sY4OIJCGtY-
Characterization isn’t great overall in the prequels, but I think it’s strongest here because we’re seeing it in how they fight.
Like, the original trilogy sets the bar for choreography quite low anyways so it is eye-popping for that era as we'd droll and clap for peanuts, but it is absolutely carried by affective memory.
Goes on way too long and is way too pleased about the notions of cgi and acrobatics to use them well