The Best #1 - Darth Maul vs. Qui-Gon Jin/Obi-Won Kenobi, The Phantom Menance. I could care less about the rest of the movie, but the best battle in any of the films almost redeems this one by itself. Two versus one, and Maul holds his own. A 3-dimensional fight to the death in which most participants DO die. Incredible.
#2 - Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader, Return of the Jedi. Not the greatest aesthetically, but easily the most dramatic, with the most on the line. As the Rebel Alliance fights for its life outside, Luke fights the Dark Side within himself, committing irreversibly to his faith his father can be redeemed. In the end he not only wins the physical battle, but is proven right also.
#3 - Obi-Won Kenobi versus Anakin Skywalker, Revenge of the Sith Not well written scriptwise (“It’s over Anakin! I have the high ground!” - really?!), but beautifully shot and choreographed. Finally we understand why Vader still hates Kenobi enough to kill him the next time they meet, even decades later.
#4 - Rey and Kylo Ren versus throne room guards, The Last Jedi. Pretty cool, though lessened somewhat because these characters lack the weight of the characters from the original trilogy.
The worst … #3 - The original: Vader versus Kenobi in A New Hope. In light of what came after, pretty dull. #2 - Kenobi versus General Grievous, Revenge of the Sith. Nothing says Danger! like fighting CGI. #1 - Rey versus Kylo Ren, The Force Awakens. It’s hard to take Ren seriously when he’s beaten by someone who literally never even HELD a lightsaber before.
Luke Luke battles Darth Vader in a fantasy sequence on the planet Dagobah in the movie The Empire Strikes Back. This is where Luke sees himself inside Darth Vader’s mask. That’s a pretty good scene.
For me, it’s Luke-vs-Vader for real in that one: like a fencer, Vader keeps Luke on the defensive while parrying everything our relatively-unskilled hero comes at him with; and when Luke, after a couple of desperation tactics that pay off, finally manages to make it look like a swordfight that either of them could win?
Well, that’s when Vader gets into the badass stance while acting like a Jedi.
Yeah, Luke v. Vader in ESB is #1 or #2 for me. The battle rages through the inner guts of Cloud City, Luke is quickly learning that he left Dagobah maybe a tad early (though right on time, since it saves his friends), and Vader reveals exactly why he’s such a badass. He rips bulkheads and throws them at Luke using just the Force, and he seems absolutely unstoppable.
Sorry, but how can you say this? Everytime I watch this, I think “Why doesn’t one stand to the side and just Force push Darth Maul while he is fighting the other one?”
Same reason the eagles didn’t just fly The Ring to Mt. Doom one fine summer weekend. Or why Dumbledore doesn’t just use the time turner to go back and nix young Tom Riddle.
…which for me ruins the entire fight. Not only does he have Obi-Wan at his total mercy, but when Obi-Wan recalls his light saber, all of a sudden a guy whose reflexes were shown to be finey honed simply stands there for half an eternity without moving, without parrying, and is cut in two for his trouble.
I don’t know if you can call it a “lightsaber battle” per se, but Vader at the end of Rogue One cutting a swath through the rebel soldiers is incredible. You get a real sense of just how powerful the Jedi/Sith are compared to normal folk, and why the normal folk would generally just try to keep their heads down and not get noticed when these Jedi vs. Sith conflicts start kicking off.
You’ve missed a couple; where do you put the following:
[ul]
[li]Yoda hopping around like a spastic flea vs. Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones[/li][li]Anakin and Obi-Wan vs. Count Dooku at the very beginning of Revenge of the Sith[/li][/ul]
The pinnacle, for me, is the four seconds when Obi-Wan first clashes with Darth Maul after Maul has stabbed Qui-Gon Jinn. Those few seconds are beautiful, and everything that weightless-blade combat between precognitives should be.
On the subject of force pushing: I recall Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon shoving lots of battle droids around on the Trading Guild’s ship at the very beginning of Phantom Menace.
Oh, and I’m not advocating for this particular website, but I kinda want this poster with the top lightsaber moment from each movie.
I get tired of explaining this on every Star Wars thread to people who have supposedly seen this movie. Kylo Ren is BARELY alive at this point, he is covered in sweat simply from the effort of standing up. He’s been gut shot by Chewies bowcaster, a weapon previously shown to have the firepower of a bazooka. He’s also already fought and been injured by Finn, who did in fact have some melee training as a Stormtrooper. This is actually one of the best fights in the entire series, it combines the good choreography of the newer movies without the horrible writing of the prequels.