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Why the lightsaber fights in Star Wars I-III were so bad [video]

Posted by / July 7, 2015

The Star Wars prequels went down in the annals of movie history as embarrassments. One reason for this was the terrible fight scenes. Why were they so bad? This video breaks it down.

Full story at First Man on the Spoon.

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Photo credit: Canva

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  • cedaly1968

    You people are crazy. Look at the light saber battles in the first 3 episodes in the series. They move so slow it was like a LIGHT saber weight 100 lbs. The fight scenes in Episode I-III were 100x better; they moves at 10x the speed like you would expect when fighting with flashlights that just happen to be able to cut you in half.

  • Craig

    This article is completely backwards. The original trilogy lightsaber usage was terrible. The prequel episodes were amazing. Ray Parks as Darth Maul – epic. I loved all of the light saber battles, but they could have skipped yoda versus Sidious, as it just looked unbelievable and way to heavy on the CGI.

  • And the point of this video is…?
    You do realize that nobody actually fights in movies, right? You do realize that in the Holy Classic Trilogy, Boba Fett’s blaster explodes in two BEFORE Luke’s saber hits it? And none of the guys that fall off of Jabba’s sail barge are ever actually hit by the saber. And the saber blades bounce off of thin metal railings in the final duel with Luke and Vader. And on and on….

  • Mike

    Dude, the reason why the battles in the original trilogy are so slow is because back then, Lucas thought the blades would be super heavy. He thought for beams to have such “energy” that the blades would be hard to move.

  • BoBoJett

    I’m guessing whoever “wrote” this story never really watched the original Star Wars movies from the 70s-80s.

    People do absolutely no research when they type these drivel stories on the internet. Journalistic integrity is out the window in this day and age when anyone, including people who have zero idea of the subject, can type turd and hit submit.

  • Jekyl

    Besides the obvious movie-making techniques where no one is actually getting punched or kicked (see WWE for good examples), lore-wise, there are other factors at play here beyond just sword fighting which explain many of the jabs this video made.
    Why are they always able to dodge lightsaber swings? Why do they always contact each other’s sabers when there are seemingly plenty of opportunities to strike a fatal blow? The answer is the Force, and it covers MOST of the problems this video calls attention to. These fights deal with more than just hand-eye coordination and other physical qualities, they involve kinetic and psychic ability as well (through the Force). Although we can’t see it, there is a mental battle all-its-own going on between these 3, one where they all are essentially constantly reading other’s thoughts to anticipate their next moves. It’s a battle of who can keep up mentally AND physically, and whoever has better command of both is going to come out on top.
    It’s been shown that Jedi can influence people’s thoughts as well (and/or throw up psychic barriers of some sort), so it is reasonable to expect that one jedi may be able to influence the actions (or inaction) of another. I won’t go as far to say that THAT is how Obi-Wan defeated Darth Maul, who just stood there like an idiot and let himself be sliced in half (I’d instead just blame Lucas for being dumb and killing off the best character of the entire prequel series) but, it is possible that Maul’s mental state was deteriorating, and Obi-Wan was able to take advantage and, in a way, blind him.

  • Hogwash I tells Ya….

  • george

    worst article ever, end fight scene in phantom menace was great

  • StarWarsJedi

    i agree with cedaly!!

  • Dookie Howzer

    click bait

  • GuyKawaskiblowsdick

    This is utter BS. Episode 4-6 lightsaber battle and story depth were horrible! I grew up on those films and never really cared. Episode 1-3 were amazing, hence why they out sold the originals.

  • Chris

    i agree with CEDALY1968 the only shinning moments in Ep 1-3 were the fight scenes. The only exception being the lack luster fight between Mace Windu and Palpatine and only then because George changed the fight the day of shooting. You can barely call the ones in the original trilogy fights.

  • StClown

    The lightsaber duels in eps IV-VI were all about emotional climaxes to the overall plot while also adding some eye candy into the movies themselves. Look at Luke’s face in Empire and Jedi during those fight scenes, he’s battling a stronger and better trained opponent and you can see the fear and frustration on his face the whole time. Qui Gon Jin and Obi wan weren’t in such positions, and thus were going through the motions of a sword fight without actually putting soul into the scenes – largely George Lucas’s fault. Thankfully, the technology wasn’t available during the making of those first movies so Lucas couldn’t indulge his less attractive, baser instincts while making those movies. As opposed to the lightsaber duels in eps I-III, where the technology existed to make them visually stunning yet completely empty of that soul, and therefore did little with regards to aiding the overall story.

  • Grackene

    I’m so sick of every horrible story point in the prequels being explained “because of the force” UGH that is TERRIBLE story telling.

  • pantsless

    Congratulations. You’ve just observed actors utilizing proper stage combat technique.

  • Shade

    Pretty sure the fight scenes are not one of the complaints most people have with the prequels. You guys are on your own there.
    On the contrary, the fights were pretty epic. Everyone hates the trilogy because of the characters, weird drama, etc.. I think most agree that in fact the lightsaber battles were one of the few almost-redeeming points.

  • dlamet

    CEDALY1968 couldn’t have said it better. You people are all on drugs. I think SW Prequel bashing is just “in”.

  • Chris

    This is absolutely insane. The prequels are terrible films for a variety of reasons, to many to mention, but the fight scenes are wildly improved upon the original trilogy, which were almost uniformly terrible when it came to light saber battles.

  • This article is retarded… as Cedaly has said, the first 3 movies had slow fight scenes, and although my inner child loved them, the battles were 500x better in the prequels, and only got better as they progressed. The video was more-so troll clickbait than anything concrete. .-.

  • Derek

    The fights were universally praised as superior to the original series. What the hell are you morons talking about???

  • I fenced in college and the best swordfight I’ve seen (meaning closest to real but with theatrics) was in The Princess Bride. Star Wars 1-3 were MUCH better than the crappy stuff in 4-6.

  • oakfan23

    I agree, I thought the lightsaber duels in the prequels were much better than original trilogy. The lightsabers themselves just looked and sounded better, movements much quicker.

  • Crosis

    The duel between Luke and Vader in ESB is just as good as anything from the prequels. I don’t get why people hate on 1 through 3 so much. I didn’t like some things about them, but they weren’t terrible.

  • Larry

    I have to agree with cedaly 1968 episodes 1,2 and 3 were better in almost every way from scripts, acting, and special effects most of the opinions like this one are written by guys who were in diapers when Star Wars first came out and who can sing the ewok song while making there dolls do the fight scenes . so just grow up

  • You

    Agree with this guy ^^^

    The light saber battle between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan is Episode IV was SO lame!

  • dand

    in I-III the lightsaber battles are unnecessarily long, just for the spectacle. the purpose shouldn’t be this, the SW shouldn’t be action movies.

  • nothing to see here

  • Nukedps

    No, he battles in the prequels were super and we’re getting better with each next episode to reach a peak in Episode III. The battles in the original trilogy were the lame ones. Stop with this blind and cliche barking at the prequels for everything! They had many strong points and most of all they returned life in the saga and charged several generations with love for Star Wars.

  • by the time Luke came along his father was an aging construct of a master who hadn’t seen a full Jedi in likely a decade or more. and both Obi and Yoda aged badly, so by than skill was basic at best. Also using modern editing software to generate problems is just stupid. obviously IF you slowed it down enough and re engineered it. Which is likely what these fools did, you destroy the real time imagery. That seems to be the point here. these crackheads want to destroy the joy of watching these, for no good reason as I can see it….

  • Jekyl

    “The lightsaber duels in eps IV-VI were all about emotional climaxes to the overall plot while also adding some eye candy into the movies themselves. Look at Luke’s face in Empire and Jedi during those fight scenes,”
    Stclown – I agree these emotional moments were a great quality of the original trilogy and the prequels definitely lacked them, however, one COULD argue (in this specific case) that Luke shows this kind of emotion because he is not exactly a properly trained Jedi. One could argue that Jedi like Obi-Wan and Qui-gon are lacking this emotion in their fights because, as Jedi, they are trained practically from birth to cast emotion aside in order to be in complete control of their mental state. The whole attraction of the dark side is the fact that they encourage you to get angry, to feel emotion and use it to your advantage, whereas the Jedi are the opposite. Again, not defending the prequels for lacking emotion, just saying that within the context of the lore, it makes sense.

  • Tibor Meszaros

    To me 1-3 were more visually entertaining in the fight scenes, but overall the movies lacked character connections/emotions. They seemed to have been moving through some learned motions. It was also bad choice of actors, and in a lot of parts horrible CGI. The Yoda vs. Sidious scene was awesome, imo, even though it was over-CGI’d! Overall, SW 4-7 will always be my favorite because it seems easier to connect with being so real in all aspects.

  • austin
  • The fight scenes WERE NOT slowed down for editing. They were shown at the speed the actors had achieved from months upon months of practice. This article is typical Original Trilogy fanboy whining at it’s absolute worst. The fight scenes from the OT were absolutely horrible. The technique was slow, plodding, predicable, and based off of weapons that have ONE cutting edge. If you had bothered to look up how a lightsaber theoretically works, you would have known that a lightsaber cuts on any part of the blade that touches any matter PLUS you would have avoided writing an article that shows your ignorance of the prequels and Star Wars in general. Go get your stuffed ewok toy child, go sit in the corner, and let us enjoy our movies without your pedantic blathering.

  • Pure fodder to the Prequel-hate fad. Lightsaber battles are the most enjoyable aspect of the Prequels. The audience is supposed to enjoy their choreography and drama, not to delve into their physics or plausibility studies. IT’S FANTASY YOU MORON! If you want an accurate battle, go watch a medieval sword fight documentary.

  • Not really sure what some people expect from those fight scenes, spoon fed discussions in scene about what is going on? You can hate on the duel between Maul and Obi Wan & Qui Gon, but that was a truely epic fight. Maul more or less ignores Obi Wan throughout that fight, and focuses primarily on his real foe; Qui Gon. Not a real “wow” revelation I know, but he does that to mess with Obi Wan. For all intents and purposes, Obi Wan was as much of a whiney b*)(&! at that point as Anakin became later on. Maul plays that up by ignoring him. The books hint at Obi Wan tapping the dark side when Qui Gon is struck down, hence the furious attack when the energy shield drops. The other cool thing about that fight is the change in form styles Maul employs before and after Obi Wan cuts his saber.

    The problem a lot of people seem to miss with the epIv-Vi fights was that one of the combatants in each fight was simply engaging in a belaying action. In epIv, Obi Wan wasn’t trying to “win” that fight, he was just holding Vader back long enough for Luke and friends to escape. In Ep V and Vi Vader was trying to turn Luke, the point wasn’t to kill Luke. He was herding Luke on Bespin, and trying one last time to turn him on the DS2. That, and the whole mixed emotions for fighting his son. Emotional quality of those two fights, for Vader/Anakin, was completely different than his fight with Obi Wan on Mustafar in that he Anakin truely hated Ben at that point and really wanted to kill him. So the whole “going all out” affect. Same with the earlier fights in epI-III. That and the force does explain away a lot of the “missed” opportunities. Whether or not someone like Grakene being sick of that plot device is irrelevent, the Force is a part of the SW universe and at the time of EpI-III the Jedi were pretty much at the height of their power.

    Yeah, the prequels left a lot to be desired but the elements are there for a quality story. Unfortunately, Lucas is better at crafting a story then he is at directing one. He really should have left ep1-3 to someone else. You have to sort of “want” to form your own opinion on the series instead of just falling in line with everyone saying “oi, they’re garbage…cgi meh”. Try holding the original series acting up to the same lofty standards and you’ll find a lot of that was lacking as well. I mean, Carrie Fisher was god awful in ANH.

  • Oh this is such complete shyte! Those duels were good. What? Must every duel be a carbon copy of the ones in the first Trilogy? Before the Purge there were far more styles and versatility to Lightsaber styles than post Republic era. But beyond speaking only of the movies, let me ask this. Where is the imagination of people these days that they have to be spoon fed everything by a corporation and accept it as law?

  • Tony

    Terrible article. I wonder how old some of these commenters are. I know when I was 9, physics didn’t matter to me in EP4. When I saw EP1-3 as an adult, I didn’t care about the physics. It’s Star Wars. You know, SCI-FI/FANTASY…it’s not about picking the movie apart, it’s about getting lost in a fantasy.

  • john

    No, the movie series that was an embarrassment was Twilight. Just bacause the prequels didn’t match what story supposed fans already had in their heads doesn’t make them bad. They were not supposed to he like the originals, it as a different time in the history of the Jedi. Enough of the prequel bashing already. I enjoy them, if you don’t like them then fine don’t watch them, but let the rest of us enjoy.

  • The prequels are amazing

  • The prequels were amazing

  • This epitomizes why sci-fi nerds are ridiculed. Terrible, just terrible.

  • Daniel

    Calm down, nerds, the video was intended to be lighted-hearted and humerous.

  • Ryan

    The only reason I could even remotely agree with this is because they changed up the style so much. The original three movies were modeled after Kendo. It’s less flashy and not obvious unless you know what you’re looking at. I don’t like that style myself, but I could understand someone being dissatisfied with such a major change. Aside from that, it’s a frickin movie and the fights were designed to entertain, which they did.

  • The original trilogy light saber fights are much more dramatic and cool. The prequels are not. The prequel light saber fights are stupid.

  • this is way better than the fight between vader and obi wan in part 4 in the death star where obi wan was kill. two jedi masters fight like peewee herman. that’s laughable.

  • Lol, idiot. The lightsaber fights are not one of the things people hate about the prequels.

  • Jar Jar Abrams

    Enough of the prequel hate. Jesus.

    On top of that, I would like to point out that the Vader/Ben Kenobi fight in Episode IV was awful…. (But don’t expect the OT diehards or yahoo news to admit this.)

  • Quest

    I hate this article.

  • Old video is old.

  • I feel dumber for having read this. After QGJ dies Obi vs Maul is by far and away the BEST duel in the collection and makes E1 worth watching.

  • Deek Windsome

    Congratulations, this is the stupidest thing I’ve seen all year!
    There are plenty of things to pick apart the prequels for — the scripts, the acting, the over-reliance on digital effects, allowing bad ideas like Jar Jar to be included and so on.
    However, the fight scenes are one of the few high spots in those films. Yes, they lack the context and emotional gravitas of the originals, but the choreography is beautiful. I mean, these are characters that can anticipate every move through the force and are partially clairvoyant, so yeah, it makes sense that it’s going to look like they’re just swinging blades to hit against each other because they’re just that good.
    If one were to spend this much time picking apart the fights in the original trilogy, they’d have a heyday. Slowing it down and repeating things over and over, you’re going to find this type of stuff in any movie with sword fights or fisticuffs.
    If you must beat the dead horse of the prequels, please pick something legitimate.

  • Zocolo Fishing

    I’m so tired of all the Prequel haters… And at the same time, the same guys have seen the movies 18 times. “Yeah I think I only saw it in the theater about 18 times! I’m mean really if it was good, I might have went 50?!”. LOL.. Really this is just ‘Mob’ mentality. In reality you liked it then, and you still like it. It’s just something to complain about. If you want to complain about something: See this: http://whatculture.com/film/10-problems-nobody-wants-admit-original-star-wars-trilogy.php

  • This does seem a bit ass backwards, the fight choreography was arguably the only reason to watch the prequel trilogy.

  • Rob

    Meesa stayin outa dis one…

  • Mr Kawasaki, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.