I seem to be the only person I know that hated, and I do mean hated, the Yoda fight scene.
Am I completly alone in this?
Why did I hate it? Why do I, Zebra think that this was the nadir of the film?
Well let me tell you.
I thought Yoda’s kung-fu pose at the beginning was silly. Leave the Sam Jackson stuff to him. Yoda has a different type of power. When Yoda attack it reminded me of the Sir Bidimus from Labyrinth. (A silly tiny fox (?) attacking a huge monster) Throw in the fact that Yoda basically lost. However if you think back to Annie, Obi-Wan and Amidala (or is her name Padme or what?) and she falls out of the ship and Annie wants to go back. What did Obi-wan say? NO. We have to say screw our friends and do what is best for the big picture. However when master Yoda has the same choice he make the oppisite decision. He saves Annie and Obi from the falling pillar instead of stopping Count Doodoo. So is Obi-Wan the idiot or is Yoda.
Oh wait it’s Yoda who can apparently sit across from Palpatine and not get an inkling that he is evil. But that’s a different gripe.
I think back to Empire Strikes Back and the awe inspiring show of ‘force’ when Yoda calmly, quietly lifts the X-wing from the swap without even breaking a sweat. That’s the Yoda I knew and loved.
Well, there’s the small matter that Padme is not the chosen one and Anakin, um, is. It might be worth Yoda’s time to try saving him, I would think.
For one thing, he lifted the X-Wing from an at-rest position in the water; the column he stops is, you know, falling and stuff? For another, Yoda gives an obvious little grunt of exhaustion after lifting the X-Wing. Just because he did it doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard.
I’m with you – the Yoda fight scene was AWFUL, it actually made me embarassed to be alive.
Personally, I think it should have been a snap for Yoda to control the pillar. After all, he expected Luke (basically untrained) to be able to lift an X-Wing with the Force! A Jedi master (IMHO) should be able to lift a column that probably doesn’t weight even 1/4 of an X-wing AND kick ass at the same time.
It seems to me that the pillar only needed a little push so it wouldn’t fall on them. A little push would have made it miss them and then roll away from them.
In ESB I always thought that was a sigh as in ‘sigh this kid will never learn’ I mean how can he stand there and watch it and not believe?
If you thought the Yoda fight was cool let me know why.
Lucas seems content to infuse his series with many thing Eastern, but the simple deflect (as opposed to block) appears to be lost on him. What ‘master’ would take the brunt of a blow rather that lightly (with impeccable timing) brushing it harmlessly to the side.
[amateur director mode]
It would have made more sense to have Dookie drop a pillar on Yoda to start with (and have Yoda deflect it) and then bring the roof down on Little Orphan Annie, thus forcing Yoda to direct much energy and attention to saving the lad and Obi Wan.
[/amateur director mode]
Apparently not, but I enjoyed the heck out of it. But we can agree to disagree, AFAIC. However…
In the scene where Palpatine and the Jedi Council are talking with Amidalla & crew about security, Padme begins to say something…paraphrasing somewhat here…
Padme: “But I don’t think…”
Palpatine: “…extra security is necessary. But Senator (blah blah blah)”
…and Yoda gives him a very pointed look. He obviously realizes something is up with Palpatine. Although why he doesn’t say anything is another question, of course. Hopefully, they’ll adress is later on.
Or maybe it would have been easier to use the Force to shove Obi wan and Anakin out of the way of the falling pillar, or perhaps (I don’t remember if they were conscious) they could have done that themselves.
As for Luke moving the x-wing, Yoda was telling another Jedi lie. He didn’t expect that Luke would be able to budge it in the slightest, and you will recall the very startled look on his face when Luke moved it just slightly.
The Yoda with a lightsaber reminded me of an angry swarm of bees.
Well, I’m not going to pick all the nits here…but he was in the middle of a fight for his life, fercryinoutloud. So maybe he didn’t pick the absolute ideal response. He was under great stress, but he got the job done. He ain’t a spring chicken any more, ya know. I hope I do as well at 850+.
I see people whining that an 800+ year-old Jedi Master in a desperate battle with terrifyingly evil forces after organizing the defeat of a major army in the midst a crisis of faith (i.e., his inability to see the future well enough) and they’re complaining he didn’t react exactly smoothly when Mr. Evil drops a 50-ton column on his grand-student’s heads?
In TPM, the duel between Obi-Wan and Maul is the highlight of the film, and one of the best choreographed duels ever. In that fight, Obi-Wan is a true badass and is facing another badass who takes all he’s got and more.
The Obi-Wan/Ducksoup duel just does not measure up, and seems to me to be intentionally weak in order to leave room for the much less believable (and inherently artificial) Yoda/Dukesofhazzrd duel.
Now, I enjoyed the idea of Yoda being the top dog with a sabre and all, but I do feel let down nonetheless.
As for the whole “nudge the pillar aside instead of catch it thing”, I agree. If he’s really the superfast force-dude that he is purported to be, with 800+ years of experience, then he should have done the most efficient thing out of reflex, not struggled with it the way Anakin might have, in the pride of youthful strength and inexperience.
It’s pretty easy when you have hours and hours to think about these things (as apparently we all have), but when a split second decision has to be made, none of us always make the decision that has the best outcome on all levels. Even Jedi masters and Dopers aren’t perfect.
I think there’s an easy in-movie explanation for it. Remember that Darth is still active, he didn’t just drop the cylinder and then run. When I saw that scene, I figured that Yoda wasn’t just moving the column, but was also fighting Doku with the force. If he had tried to just deflect it and stop, Duku could have pushed it back into place with the same effort.
The Yoda fight scene was cool, because I’ve been waiting for that little green prick to show me some bad-ass jedi moves instead of levitation, holmes (to coin a phrase), for the last 20 years, that’s why.
What is he, David Friggin’ Copperfield or a godamned jedi knight?!? You didn’t see Obi-Wan levitating that guy in the bar, did you? Shit no. Sliced his arm right off.
