Samuel L. Jackson Thinks Force Awakens Actors Need "Lightsaber Fight School"

[elvor0]

The thing I found most, shall we say annoying about the fights, is that when they swung the lightsabers, it looked like a broadsword. As in, it had a heavy heft to it. Lightsabers, lorewise, were so light and so unlike other melee weapons, that they took so long to master. I think they had it backwards in the movie, the swings were slow where they should have been fast. If they wanted to show inexperience they could have swung the blade too far, leaving themselves open.

TLDR: The swings should have been much faster for the weight of the weapon, they looked too slow.

Lorewise, in the original movies, they were supposed to be heavy.


Skip to 3:30, and you'll see Mark Hamil and George Lucas talking about how they were supposed to be wielded like massive 2 handed swords.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Say what you will about the prequels, but at least the light-saber fights in them were AMAZING to watch. The fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin was amazing to watch, and while I can understand not wanting to have a fight where Fin and Rey were on that skill level, this fight was just awful, slow, and boring to watch.

You'd concede the underlined is actually just completely subjective, ergo kinda pointless to phrase in that way, right?

They were flashy, sure, but I was personally not 'amazed'. Whereas I have the opposite reaction to TFA's; I think that film gave the entire series its soul back, and those saber clashes felt emotional and, at times, desperate. Cause and consequence - as opposed to waving glowsticks around.

 

[Valkrex]

Say what you will about the prequels, but at least the light-saber fights in them were AMAZING to watch. The fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin was amazing to watch, and while I can understand not wanting to have a fight where Fin and Rey were on that skill level, this fight was just awful, slow, and boring to watch.

You'd concede the underlined is actually just completely subjective, ergo kinda pointless to phrase in that way, right?

They were flashy, sure, but I was personally not 'amazed'. Whereas I have the opposite reaction to TFA's; I think that film gave the entire series its soul back, and those saber clashes felt emotional and, at times, desperate. Cause and consequence - as opposed to waving glowsticks around.

Yea... this is a subjective opinion on a subjective piece. Just because you disagree with me doesn't mean that I think your wrong or your opinion is invalid.

 

[SmugFrog]

The prequels had exciting fights the first time you see them - then you go back and watch it and... not so much.

What really pushed it over to top for me in how bad it was is this video. You can clearly see how hard they were trying to miss each other.


Specifically at 1:47, just... wtf? It's really dancing. That awkward spin and "I'd better take my time so I don't turn too soon and hit you."

The Force Awakens made it look like those characters were out to kill each other. It's a shame that Jackson doesn't appear to be a big fan of the movie. It kind of makes me wonder if there's a bitterness because he wanted to be in these and someone refused him. I swear I read an article a while back where he had claimed or hinted that his character was not actually killed off.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I like the sword play, it looked more realistic. What with Kylo Ren having a cracked crystal, and difficulty with the force, it makes sense, that his blade acts like an unwieldy double handed sword, or axe.