CT Your Least Favorite Scene from the Originals

I want to learn the ways of the Thuro and become a forgetter.

 

It was perfection when it was added, and perfection again when subsequently removed.

 

To be fair, one of the actors was an old man and the other actor was in a heavy suit so they were not going to be flipping off the walls bashing at each other.

 

The garbage compacter scene in ANH

It just hasn't aged well and there's no tension to it. Nor is it particularly exciting and I feel it's become a tad bit cliché, unfortunately. I never believed our heroes were in danger.

 

True, but when Vader fought Luke it was far more convincing. Obi-Wan being old isn't an excuse. Count Dooku was older in Episodes II and III.

 

I think DARTHLINK is speaking more in real world terms. They couldn't exactly CG Alec Guinness's head onto a stunt double, and regardless, it would be difficult to realistically show Vader acrobatically moving about unless he was 100% CGI

 

Right, I do agree. I am not implying or expecting prequel-style duels and choreography. However, if the duel could have at least been as interesting as Luke vs Vader in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi it would been much better.

I think even with a little music added it could make a huge difference. Here is a video of the duel with "Battle of the Heroes" from Revenge of the Sith added in. Now I don't think this video is perfect nor is Battle of the Heroes the appropriate song for this duel. I am just posting this to show the difference music can make.

 

I saw a video with Imperial March added in and it rocked.

 

I never had a problem with the Vader/Obi-Wan fight because I don't think it was a duel on the same level as Luke/Vader. It wasn't really a fight, it was a distraction to let the others get away. That's just me though.

 

I don't really have a problem with the duel between Obi-Wan & Vader, and in the context of the first film alone, it works fine - we've never seen a lightsaber duel before and it's two old foes meeting once more, presumably past their physical prime.

Given Vader's increased physical prowess from ESB onwards and the more intense duels with Luke involved, however, I do see why many regard it as a bit flat. If you watched the PT first, then SW/ANH, you could simply write it off as being due to Obi-Wan Kenobi's age and Vader's injuries, but then in ESB Vader is a thoroughly powerful and dangerous swordsman, more than a match for Luke, who's not too shabby himself.

Works for me. It's also a bit more about the dialogue in the scene, anyway.

 

My biggest complaints about the OT are about the pace of some scenes, not the scenes themselves. I find action sequences in ANH and sometimes TESB a bit too stretched out for my tastes. If there had been more editing in battle places such as when Luke & co undertake the mission to destroy the first Death Star, or during the battle of Hoth in ESB, it would make for a more effortlessly-paced trilogy. Still the segment deserving the mention of poorest editing IMO is the robots' wandering on Tatooine in the start of ANH...it's tedious, drags on and serves few purposes.

I was mostly displeased in the way 'Leia is Luke's sister and Vader's daughter' revelations were handled in ROTJ. Leia being a mouthy person, I expected more denial and angry words as Luke delivers the news instead of just accepting the truth in the few 'serene Jedi-like' moment she has in the OT(Despite no training at all, Leia 'just knows' that Luke is in a specific place in the end of ESB...)to advance the plot. Certainly, her asking Han to hold her contradicts her personality. I understand even feisty girls like her get distressed occasionally, but the Leia I know from the previous films would not so openly ask for comfort. She kept herself focused towards her mission in ANH despite losing her entire planet, even making herself available to Luke(whose loss of Obi-wan frankly was nothing compared to hers) so I do not see her seeking the arms of Han even in light of such a revelation.

 

I didn't have an easy time coming up with an answer for this thread, nothing really popped up instantly, nothing stood out on cursory recall.

Pretty much this, the SE would probably make up the top 100 least favorite stuff from the OT for me, which is why I'm not considering the SE in regards to this thread.

Great answer, thank you. I knew this scene was the one as soon as you called it to my attention.

I would count the whole scene, including the previous part with Luke, and it comes off even worse post-PT.

Carrie's performance in this scene is horrible, it's entirely paint by numbers, straight from Joey Tribbiani's School of Acting. She couldn't have been less interested, she completely checked out before the scene even started. Who could blame her? It's perhaps the worst written scene in the OT, up there with the worst of the PT. On top of that, her role in the movie amounts to little more than wearing a bikini, there was little motivation for her to take any interest in her performance.

"Your real mother" once meant something, Luke's barely contained interest held something compelling, but now it makes no sense. Leia's recollection of her mother is now empty nonsense. "I have no memory of my mother, I never knew her". Neither did Leia.

"Luke, tell me. What's troubling you?" Who is this person?

(cue variation on Smell the Fart acting) "Your father?"

"You have a power I don't understand, and could never have." It's like Carrie doesn't even know what she's supposed to be saying here, the line is so poorly delivered. The way she delivers it, it's like "you have a power", "I don't understand", and "and could never have" are part of three different sentences. Personally, I always understood what she was supposed to be saying, but it didn't surprise me to see people in this forum confused by it.

"I know. Somehow...(cue classic Smell the Fart technique)...I've always known." This is just...such a poor choice of words. It's hard to believe this was given the go ahead, that this was considered good enough. It's frustrating that "good enough" was apparently good enough for such a scene.

"But why must you confront him?" Seriously, who is this woman? Lana Organa, Leia's terrible twin from Days of Our Lives?

Their last moment together in the scene, what could have been the last time they ever saw each other, is really weird. Luke gives her this awkward peck on the cheek from what looks like a mile away, and Leia is reluctant to let go of his hand, like lovers parting instead of siblings. It's as if they're actually playing out the awkward incest after the revelation, the whole thing is just bizarre. This scene is the only time the incest gets creepy because of Leia's baffling reaction, and the fact that there's just no excuse left at this point, in-universe or out.

Leia's soap opera sobbing with Han is just so, so bad (it reminds me of Mango's "reach-turn" bit from SNL) that it makes me wonder if that's how it was even written. I can almost convince myself that Carrie just forgot her lines and stumbled her way through it, and for some reason George didn't care, called it a scene and moved on. Seems like something he would do, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case. The scene just really was that bad.

It's an incredibly lazy, unseemly, train wreck of a scene.

 

Yeah, Leia's completely underwhelmed response to finding out Luke is her brother/Vader is her father never made much sense to me. That should've been a pretty mind-blowing moment for her, but instead she's just like…."Huh. Weird….but I guess I already knew that…"

 

The responses in this thread are interesting but puzzling to me particularly regarding Leia. It seems some see her as weak for wanting to be held ever and it doesn't contradict her personality at all to me. I'd like a further explanation if someone is willing. I agree that Han/Leia is mishandled badly on the whole but so is romance in general in SW. The 'hold me' does seem forced in delivery but humanises the 'Princess' for me just slightly which is saying a lot as Alpha Females unnerve me.

Far as her accepting the truth of relation to Luke, she never seemed to have issue with him much anyway she was upset and affected most by Tarkin and Han so in a sense it makes sense to me. The 'I know where Luke is' isn't merely advancing plot it's the major clue she's Force-Sensitive too.

Originally my least fave scene in OT was the nightmare-inducing Sids fries Luke alive in RotJ now it's when Tarkin dies.

 

I love what Adywan did with this (and the Adywan edition in general, especially his Battle of Yavin) but really dislike the use of Battle of Heroes there. It just doesn't fit.

 

It's not that I think the desire to be held weak, it's I think that Leia would think that asking to be held is weak, hence my inability to believe in that scene. Leia not asking for comfort after the destruction of her planet, and then asking it when knowing of her birth father's identity & Luke's plan to track him down? Does not seem in character to me. Even acknowledging that unpredictability of human emotions can make us react more strongly to a less important event, I still do not envision a tearful Leia falling in Han's arms. I see her hiding her tears and abruptly waking away, maybe a few snappy words here and there. It's more her reaction to her own breakdown than her actual reaction to the news that is off IMHO.

I don't find Leia's Force-Sensitive moments consistent. If she 'just knows' Luke is her brother in ROTJ, why didn't she 'just knew' when they first and throughout the first movies? No need to have her know the full truth, but at least having her showing hints there is 'something familiar with this guy'. I am aware she kissed him partly to get back at Han for being a jerk in ESB, but to me it seems that on some level in ANH/ESM while not looking for romance specifically she still had not crossed out the two boys as 'non dating material'. I actually thought she'd end up with Luke...

That Leia 'just knew' where to find Luke seems like an avoidance on the part of GL/co to find a way to bring Luke to safety, just like Leia's 'I know he is alive' after the second Death Star blowing up appears to be a way to avoid a few lines of her and Han worrying needlessly about Luke as well as a way to manipulate the script to move in the direction of Han mistaking Leia's affection to Luke as romantic thus prompting the following kissing scene/official getting together moment. It feels lazy to me, as there was three films for them to become an official couple.

My beef with Leia's Force-intuition is not just that her 'knowings' were not consistent or used IMHO as script convenience, but that there does not seem to be any reason for her to be Force-Sensitive to begin with. Her 3 Force uses were accidental at best. Not only she didn't get to be trained, she didn't show her Force-intuitions at other times such as during battle, strategic planning,etc. If she has to remain an untrained Force-Sensitive, I'd like for her to be shown using her gifts against the empire, even if just in the intuition arena. Of course I'd have preferred for her to be trained(maybe by Luke) on the sideline of her political obligations. Alternatively, if she absolutely has to be Luke's brother(a twist I did not like) and by her ancestry, Force-Sensitive, create a conflict with her not trusting the Force, or deciding not to use it actively for a personal reason. Heck, I even think that Anakin being her biological father should not automatically mean Force powers(even if with his midichlorians chances are his offspring will get those)-she could be the Star Wars version of Squibbs.

It's just that to me, her having the Force means there has to be either a manner in which she uses it actively consistently, or if not, a conscious rejection of it within a character arc. So her occasional accidental usage feels put there for superficial reasons(They decide last minute Luke is Vader's son and has an unknown sister, then they decide last minute Leia will be that sister so they hurriedly give her sudden accidental Force moments via parentage when they are stuck in the script-making process).

 

I agree "Battle of the Heroes" isn't the ideal song for that scene, but its better than no music. I posted it to show that music could have carried this scene even though the duel itself wasn't done very well.

 

It's not so much her relation to Luke that I'd imagine she have issues with, but rather the implication that Darth Vader is her biological father--you know, the guy who tortured her, stood by as her planet was destroyed, and then callously froze her boyfriend in carbonite in ESB. *That* should unnerve her quite a bit.

And while she appeared to hold her ground against Vader in ANH, by ESB (the carbonite scene in particular), you can see that she has grown to fear him.

 

I never contested that. I don't understand why you're implying I did.

 

Because you started your post with "as for her accepting the truth of her relation to Luke…." so I was merely pointing out that it's not so much that part that I have trouble with, but the other relation that was revealed to her at basically that same moment. It's a mind-blowing revelation (think of Luke's response in ESB), and she just appears to be underwhelmed about it all.

 

She doesn't respond the way I think she should either but it's hardly surprising. Just because I didn't mention Vader doesn't mean I think she wasn't or shouldn't be effected by him simply that to me Han and Tarkin affect her more.

 

The ANH saber fight doesn't bother me too much in context. It doesn't "fit in" with the others, but that might make sense: the last time those two met, things did NOT go well for either (and one just learned the other is even still alive). They're being very cautious and feeling each other out, rather than just wailing on one another. The intended outcome of the confrontation is different than the others, too.

The mixed reactions to Leah in the ROTJ Big Revelation scene are fun.The way I interpret it is that rather than simply being pure "shock!", that chunk of info was the missing piece that made the lock tumblers in her head finally fall into place. "Ah, NOW it finally makes sense...whoa."

And unlike ANH, she doesn't have an ASAP do-or-die mission to finish/distract her. She's got a few hours to live with it. That's tough. She is able to jump back into the saddle when it's time, though.

My least fave (non-SE) scenes are just the smattering of slower scenes in ROTJ, on Tatooine and the forest moon. I don't think they're awful, but they do lack the re-watchability of the rest of the trilogy. I AM curious about how the Ewoks whipped up a human-sized, tailored outfit for Leah so quickly. Crafty little buggers.

 

Clearly the Ewoks have had other lady visitors...

 

The Towani family in the Ewoks movies spring to mind.

 

I was thinking something a bit less family friendly.