[Mnesymone]

If Senor Flanneletto had just, after training the actors up to be able to fight as they did, simply told them the end result he wanted and asked them to duke it out that might have been quite cool - the problem for me is not the fighting, it's the choreography - the fight is painfully fast and ponderously slow and George takes moments to zoom in on everyone's face in turn and play Duel of the Fates at us with the net result that we get taken out of the moment too often.
Better than the AOTC fight where cheap computer effects are used to spice up the fight and where too much time is spent looking at Hayden's brooding pretty boy face while some blue and red light plays over it and Yoda morphs into Pedros Brontophthoros on a cocktail of equine growth hormones and speed - but still the choreography of that fight grated.

[Harvey Globetrotter]

That's what I meant; it wasn't believable because of the bad choreography. It looks fancy, sure, but they look more like they're dancing than actually trying to hurt each other. Also, when watching the duel and seeing Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon attack Maul together, focus on one of them at time. You might notice that they're moving real slow and seemingly ignoring obvious opportunities to cut Maul's shit off. The whole fight is over-choreographed and gay.

Oh, and Maul being the best fighter in the entire trilogy? I'd bet that Yoda, Windu, Sidious, Dooku, Obi-Wan and Anakin (in Ep 3, when they fight like demons) would kick Maul's ass.

This is why nothing in the series backs up what you said.

This post has been edited by Harvey Globetrotter: 08 June 2005 - 06:13 AM

[Jordan]

It's my preference.

I could follow all of Maul's moves. Not to mention, the actor who played Darth Maul, Ray Park, is a world class marital artist. Lucas took wide angle shots of the final duel of ob1 vrs maul. you could follow the entire fight and I thought it was fantastic.

Furthermore I noticed that the Light sabres in TPM did not leave trails behind them as they were swung around. There was no shakey camera shit. And like I already stated the wide angle shot of the battle was great for viewing.

Yoda- Boring, he's not real

Mace- He can't fight, it did not look like he was even trying, his moves were painfully slow and his back always looked arched, like a rookie or something, no grace at all

Ob1- The most consistent, when fighting maul he looked a bit immature, but every other fight he encoutered he did a good job.

Anakin- Boring as shit, terrible camera shots of his action, never really got in to his style

Dooku - had a couple sweet moves in AOTC, but the poor camera movement and Yoda fight really hurt the overall feel.

Sidious - Again, fighting yoda is lame. His fight with mace was the worst yet. he effortlessly kills 3 Jedi knights (literally, he just swung and them at they died) yet struggles against Mace one on one (but not 4 one 1).

I like Maul's style. Ray Park is the man

the fight is painfully fast and ponderously slow and George takes moments to zoom in on everyone's face in turn and play Duel of the Fates at us with the net result that we get taken out of the moment too often.

I don't think that hurt he scene at all. But I will agree, it was a bit short. Every time the scene cut to Naboo or space I could feel the blood rush to my face in anger.

This post has been edited by Jordan: 08 June 2005 - 05:57 PM

[SithAvenger]

There is actually a comic book story in the graphic novel "Visionaries" where Maul is resurrected with a mechanical lower half and hunts for Obi-Wan by threatening baby Luke at Larrs place.  Worth a read.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Then I must get that comic...
It is well known that the expanded universe is better than the actual prequels...
Except ROTS, it rocks!

[Harvey Globetrotter]

The thing is though, Jordan, that the athleticism and martial arts mastery of the ACTOR has no bearing on the quality of the CHARACTER. Darth Maul could fight 100 Jedi Knights at one time and defeat them all with the most awesome moves ever seen by human eyes, moves indeed so amazing that Maul's Jedi victims would be grateful for the fact that they get to die in such a matter, and I'd still think he sucked. Read Chefelf's 78 reasons to hate Ep 1 again and read the Darth Maul entry; my feelings are the same as his on the matter.

[Jordan]

I'm not talking about quality of character, I'm talking about pure entertainment in the form of fighting with light sabres. Hence when I said his character was useless.

[barend]

Have you seen the Clone Wars cartoon?
You should. Then you will love Grievous. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Grevious sounds a lot cooler in the cartoon too...

[Giff]

Its true, the actor for Darth Maul, Ray Park, is a total bad ass.

He also plays Toad in the X-men movie.


Also interesting: Maul's voice isnt Park's...its dubbed into it.

Park uses his real voice for Toad though.

[Jordan]

He also played the head-less horse men in Sleepy Hollow. Poor bastard is always covered with make up or his head is edited out altogether!

He has a prissy english accent, I think it's english.

[Giff]

Maybe Scottish?

[Giff]

Imdb says he was born in Scotland and moved to England.

We both win.

[barend]

i've heard alot of opinions against this poor character...

and a film that was pure fluff...

he was pretty cool.

He wore black.
He had horns.
he was black and red with nasty teeth.
he had the skills to pay the bills in combat.
he was a total prick.

i loved him...

[Trigormike]

Its true, the actor for Darth Maul, Ray Park, is a total bad ass.
Also interesting: Maul's voice isnt Park's...its dubbed into it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The guy that does Maul's voice is Peter Seroferowicz (or something similar)
He can be seen as the irate flatmate in Shawn of the Dead.

Maul could have become a great villian if GL hadn't decided he wanted the range of Star Wars action figures to be in the thousands and killed him off so other expendable characters could take his place.

This post has been edited by Trigormike: 13 June 2005 - 07:18 PM

[barend]

there were way to many big bad guys...

it just trivializes everything...

[Giff]

Maul was superior to Dooku in my opinion.