Thread: Anyone Know What Movie/Skit This Is?

I don't watch other people's reviews to determine what I like or don't like. It's logical to believe that yoda... a jedi master... would not only use a lightsaber but would do so, given his small stature, in a way that no others would. And it worked. Well.

Originally Posted by Kanati8869

I don't watch other people's reviews to determine what I like or don't like. It's logical to believe that yoda... a jedi master... would not only use a lightsaber but would do so, given his small stature, in a way that no others would. And it worked. Well.

I don't know about anyone else in this thread, but I'm not trying to tell you that you didn't like something which you think you liked.

You enjoyed the movie. It worked for you.

Why would anyone argue with that? It might be interesting to discuss what parts of it you liked. At some point in the future you might reassess and discover that you like it even more, or that it's lost some of its shine. But if you went to the theatre and came out having enjoyed yourself, then that's a simple fact.

There are lots of crappy books which are nonetheless huge sellers. I poo-poo bad taste and the triumph of the mediocre right up until I remember that I too have guilty pleasures.

But I think there's more to art and entertainment than just Like and Not Like. I think there's a place for legit criticism.

There's a big picture to that, but since Yoda seems to be the current node let's do Yoda.

I agree that a younger Yoda might well have become proficient with a lightsabre. He's a Jedi Master, and presumably he mastered all the aspects when he was young. But Yoda's what, something like 900 years old in Episode V? Eps I, II, and III take place (I'm guessing) 25-35 years before that. Comparing the Yoda of "Empire Strikes Back" with the Yoda of "Attack of the Clones" isn't a comparison between young Yoda and old Yoda. He's Master Yoda in Clones too, and sits on the council. Crazy lightsabre skills are what young Jedi use in battle. That may have been Yoda once, but that would have been hundreds of years ago.

Having Yoda fight in a general melee with a lightsabre, or in a duel with Dooku, is lame video-game-hero stuff. It's Doom, or Quake, or any (all) of their spiritual successors. It's one guy who kills the minions and then kills the level boss and gets better weapons/skills, and levels up ... and then goes on to the next level with more/harder minions and a tougher boss ... and on and on until the Big Boss at the end.

That's fun enough, but it doesn't make for much of a story. It doesn't relate well to the world we know, or to the world we hope (some of us, at least) our favourite fictions will be - and that's because Eisenhower didn't kick von Rundstedt's ass in hand-to-hand combat.

Think of everything we learned about The Force in Ep. IV. Obi-Wan tries, again, to get through to his old pupil. Remember what he says to Vader, and how their duel plays out. Think of what we learn about Yoda in Ep V; what he tries to teach Luke, how he emphasizes the power of his spiritualism over physical interaction and domination via combat.

I'm not trying to defend the world of Star Wars. I'm not buying into the mythology, and I'm not a fanboy (though I thought Eps IV and V were good). They're just movies and characters. But the characters and the world they inhabit were created and introduced in a particular way. The prequels contradict a lot of that. This is a criticism of believability, continuity, and story; not of whether they were good movies. I think the prequels were also bad movies. They don't stand on their own because they're bad movies. They don't work well with the originals because they contradict them.

If Yoda is a great master then he needs to be a great master.

The hallmark of great strategy and foresight is that your opponent has lost before he even knows the game that is being played. Here's how a lightsabre duel with Yoda could work:

Dooku discovers where Yoda is. He gives battle instructions to his lieutenants, and then moves quickly to surprise and engage Yoda in a duel. Maybe he spends time collecting some ancient weapon-thing, or goes through some pre-combat ritual. Whatever. He then finds Yoda and it looks like he will be able to ambush and defeat the Master. Yoda is caught unawares, and runs. Dooku pursues. Finally Yoda is cornered, and turns to face the duel he's been avoiding. He purses his lips, and Dooku smiles because he knows he can take the little guy, and the sabres are out and - uh oh! it was all a distraction! Yoda opens a chasm, or flies away on some weird alien-bird thing, or blah-blah.

Meanwhile, Dooku's army looses because he wasn't there to lead them.

If you want to show off Yoda's crazy Kung-Fu shit, then do it in the chase. You can tease and mislead the audience by showing (earlier in the film) a flashback to hundreds of years ago when Yoda was a young Jedi and displayed some insane sabre stills. Then the audience is waiting for Dooku to get the ass-kicking he so deserves, and the audience is as surprised as Dooku! Yoda wins because he was 3 moves ahead, and he knew that having one side's leader kill the other side's leader in hand-to-hand combat is stupid.

This took longer than 5 minutes to type out. I wish you could have watched 5 minutes of the video link I posted. I'm not trying to tell you that you're wrong for having liked the movie. I was telling someone else (Guyver?) that I thought the prequels contradicted and ruined the originals - and were also bad movies.

The Star Wars reviews from RedLetterMedia are wonderful. They are not just a criticism. They are also an excellent way to begin learning a little something about the language of film. I don't agree with everything they say, but it's thoughtfully done.

Cheers,


AetheLove

edit: though I liked the Star Wars reviews from RedLetterMedia, I find a lot of their other stuff to be not worth the time.

Oh I HATED the prequels. I despise George Lucas for ruining the franchise. I just liked Yoda going crazy apeshit with the lightsaber because I felt it was the way he would have done so. We don't know the physiology of Yoda's species (that nobody knows the name of) so we can't assume that they slow with age, or are ever particularly agile without aid of the force. But if I were of his size and age, I would certainly use the force to aid me in a fight by making myself more nimble. I would use it to perform flips, kicks, etc. In short, the only limitation of the body is that of the mind if you are a master of the force. Or that is my interpretation of it.

That said... Fuck star wars after RotJ.