Are the final 40 minutes of AOTC the best in action cinema history?

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as awesome as the film was, has nothing on Fist of Legend in terms of fight choreography. Yuen Woo-ping outdid himself for FOL.

 

Lord Marvel - I'm glad we are yet again in agreement. Your post is exactly how I felt/feel too when watching ROTJ.

IMO action is more about tension and specific images rather than a death total or the number of combatants. The music is an underrated yet very important elemant as well. All of my favorite action sequences require excellent music.

A large scale battle works very well as in AOTC, or Braveheart. I mentioned specifics regarding AOTC in one of my previous posts. But, again as mentioned earlier, a battle as seen in T2, with a few characters in which the outcome has enormous ramifications, can be very exciting as well.

While I really liked LOTR, some of the fighting between the fellowship and the orcs/uruk-hais were too random and haphazard. Too many orcs for too few good guys. The orcs make stormtroopers look like navy seals. In CTHD, IMO an average movie, the action involved fewer characters, yet seemed forced, the rest of the movie filler between action scenes.

In AOTC, we get the huge battle between the Jedi and droids and clones v. droids as well as the more personal battle between Dooku, Obi,Anakin and Yoda. I really liked the subtle suggestions of strategy being used by the clones. Christopher Lee was just brilliant as Dooku.

Some more of my favorite non Star Wars action scenes...

LOTR - The shot of the fellowship in Moria with their swords drawn and arrows aimed as the orcs are chopping at the door.

T2 - When the T-1000 'slips' through the metal bars at the mental hospital. Not only was that an awesome effect, but it was the first time the heroes all see what they are up against.

Matrix 2 Trailer - If people can bring up scenes from movies that haven't come out yet, i.e. the battle of Helms Deep, then I can mention a trailer right? The end of the trailer where Neo and the three guys he are fighting are all jumping in unison. Really cool.

 

I haven't seen or even heard of Fist of Legend, if you claim it's better then Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, then i'd definitely should see it sometimes.

By the way the Moria scene in FOTR was very good translated from book to film, since i was a bit dissapointed by both. In the book you are being excited, by a hideous monster that scares away the troops he is commanding (unlike the movie, where the Orcs/Goblins and the Balrog are not allied) You are really suspended, and there it finally comes, a hideous monster that strikes one time at Gandalf, who shouts "thou shall not pass" and then let the Balrog slip in the cavern. That's it, end (well actually not yet) of one of the last Balrogs of Middle-earth. A little dissapointing i think, especially when a cave troll takes 5 minutes or so to take down and compare that with the very short confrontation of the Balrog.

 

People on this board have no idea about movies.

Best action in cinema history has only one movie.
Batman (1966) with Adam West. A gigantic fight between batman/robin vs. the Riddler, Joker, Catwoman, pinguin and other enemies on a nuclear ballistic submarine.
nick gillard just copied their fighting style.
After this huge clash of Titans ,action movies were never the same again.

 

"Black Hawk Down" was pointless...well tell it to the guys and families involved!

The movie was straight-up and intended to be just that by Ridley Scott. It wasn't anti-war or even pro-war. There is a big difference! The novel was great but the movie did its job. Wanna read the novel go ahead but the movie was focused on the fire-fight and rescue...its simple: LEAVE NO MAN BEHIND

 

Best Action in a Star Wars movie? Hell yes! Best in cinema history is another thing.

Heres my favorite action sequences:

Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace - Opening with the Jedi being attacked. Podrace. Lightsaber Duel.

Star Wars Episode 2 Attack of the Clones - Beginning speeder chase on Coruscant. Final 40min.

Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope - Death Star Trench.

Star Wars Episode 5 Empire Strikes Back - Battle of Hoth. Asteroid Chase. Final 30min.

Star Wars Episode 6 Return of the Jedi - Jabba's sail barge. Speeder Bike chase. Final 30min.

Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring - Mines of Moria sequence and Parth Galen sequence.

The Killer - Opening shootout. Shootout on the beach. Final shootout.

Hard Boiled - Final 40min. shootout.

Braveheart - The 2 major battles.

Spartacus - The big battle with 10,000 extras!

Gladiator - Chariot battle.

Wild Bunch - Any shootout in this film.

Bullit and Getaway - Any of the chases.

Iron Monkey - Final showdown.

World is Not Enough - Opening boat chase.

Aliens - Final battle with the Queen.

Drunken Master 2 - Final 20min. fight. Best fight ever!

Speed - Pretty much the whole film. One big ride!

Apocalypse Now - Helicopter Attack. Bridge bombed.

Raiders of the Lost Ark - Opening Sequence. Truck chase: Best chase ever!

Jaws - Last hour. Once they get on the boat is just fantastic.

Superman - Chasing the rockets.

Matrix - Final 30min.


Oh and on the whole Moria thing from LOTR, I wouldnt say its the set-piece, cause if I did then the whole movie would be a set-piece. Its just so big that movie. And if anything I think the battle on Parth Galen is better than Moria.

 

What was Parth Galen, can you remind me?

Besides, Darth ABC, people on this board have no idea of movies? Everybody on this board has ideas about movies and especially Starwars, i suggest you respect them...

 

Parth Galen was where the ending to FOTR was set. Where the orcs hunt down the Fellowship.

 

that was a JOKE!
I am sorry if somebody took me too serious but I thought you can clearly read it.

 

Yeah, I mean there was a smiley face next to it!

 

what about the rubber shark?

EDIT: the one in batman, not jaws.

 

I don't think it is, and don't diss the FOTR battle in the Moria mines. The movie was going by the book, and the fight occured in the right timeline and before you mention Boromir's departure/death, that occurred at the beginning of the Two Towers. If Jackson wanted too, he could've stopped the movie before the final fight, before Boromir was slain.

I liked the final 40 in AOTC, but I do not think it is the greatest there has been so far.

 

I know it was going by the book, but i thought the Balrog scene in the book was also too short.

Well Darth ABC, perhaps I should try to get a better grip on the English language...

 

When an action sequence becomes formulaic and is there apart from the plot, it lacks any kind of enthusiasm or thrill and cannot sustain the audeince's attention. In Fellowship, I had switched off by the time they left Lorien.

I was underwhelmed by the action of the last forty minutes although on page it had wroked perfectly for me and I was looking forward to many literary mechanics such as the magnificent deus ex machina though their creation on screen was less than inspired and hence remains the worst climax of any Star Wars flick.

 

Simply put, Yes. It is the best ever filmed in a Si-Fi movie.

 

There were three examples of dues ex machina during the final battle in AOTC, AL, and I thought they all worked perfectly. FOTR was less successful in this regard, since I didn't believe the part where the Balrog "rescued" the heroes from the orcs.

 

I have to point out that the battle depicted in the prologue of LOTR was the very FINAL battle between the armies of men and elves and Sauron and the forces of Mordor that happened thousands of years before the Ring quest. The Battle of Geonosis was just the first one of the Clone War so of course it's not as big. It's Fort Sumter not Gettysburg.

 

I was underwhelmed by the action of the last forty minutes although on page it had wroked perfectly for me and I was looking forward to many literary mechanics such as the magnificent deus ex machina though their creation on screen was less than inspired and hence remains the worst climax of any Star Wars flick.


UH-OH, my "insecurity" and "inadequateness" tells me that I should be running away from this display of intelligence!

EDIT: Not much of a joke if DarthHomer knows the term too

 

Import Jedi - I think deus ex machina is kinda like menage-a-trois, except here it is two machines having sex.

 

Don't worry, AL and I are just pretending to know what that term means

 

You know someone who talks like they're reading out of a thesaurus is doing exactly that.

 

Samwise_Skywalker:

Yes, the truck chase in Raiders is the best chase filmed in cinema...ever! One of my fav action scenes period.

 

Yep! Indy in the truck chase scene. I can hear the music! And how it just keeps picking up more and more tempo, higher and higher pitch. And there goes another nazi. And another one. OOps, ran that one over. Eww. Threw another one out the window. lol What a violent, yet satisfying action sequence. It starts with the horse though:

Salla: "What are you doing?"
Indy: "I don't know. I'm making this up as I go along."

 

For the record, a Deus Ex Machina is a dramatic device in which the sudden introduction of a new character or force rescues the protagonists from a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

It means "God in the Machine", referring to an actual mechanical prop used in Greek theater, in which a deity or deities would descend from the heavens, and tie up all the loose ends in the play.

By extension, the term is used to describe any shocking or totally unexpected event or character in film and literature, which is why I'd argue its relevance with regard to AOTC ... since we KNOW Yoda was going to Kamino to get the Clone Army. In fact, he TELLS Mace Windu (and the audience), in very simple language, that that's exactly what he's going to do.

It's just that, by the time the Clones appear, so much has happened that we've almost FORGOTTEN about the army. So when they show up, descending out of the sky (as a D.E.M. traditionally does), it's so unexpected and overwhelming that it FEELS like a Deus Ex Machina.

But it isn't, really.

 

the term "deus ex machina" only applies if the "device" that ties up the plot has not been prepared or introduced before by the author or director. Some Westerns use this when all of a sudden the cavalry arrives in the last minute although nobody called them. Han Solo's arrival at the end of ANH is also something of a deus ex machina as he couldn't have possibly known that Luke was in that particular fighter in the trench. Nor could he have known that the rebels tried to attack the one vulnerable spot at the end of the trench. His arrival makes no sense from that point of view