wow.

but you had me at 'robot swordfights'.

Your video, Robot swordfights are not like normal swordfights, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^thyazide:

Just more reasons why Antonio Banderas should assume the role of Gomez Addams if they decide to make another Addams Family movie.


Ooooo, is that a possibility?

>> ^spoco2:

I will upvote, but it's false advertising. There's no swordfighting here.
But you get a free pass because Salma Hayek is as stunning as always.

Phew!

I will upvote, but it's false advertising. There's no swordfighting here.

But you get a free pass because Salma Hayek is as stunning as always.

I miss the guttural nature of Schwarzeneggers accent. I underestimated how much it lent to the feeling of being in a different world in the original film.

This is also not that gritty. It's polished and well-produced, with flashy sword fighting and martial arts techniques, which feel out of place. Blood and sex does not make a gritty film.

A gritty film would capture the raw nature of a real-life struggle. Not some artful dance of blades or skill in a swordfight, as much as two out-of-breath, near death men, both covered in their own blood, one missing his sword arm and only holding a shield to defend from the man in front of him, who's scalp and shoulder muscles he exposed a moment earlier with a near-missed strike, and still he manages to be victorious by spitting a mouthful of dirt into his opponents eyes, and stomping him to death on the neck.

I'm still interested to see what this will be like, but this actually reduced my interest level.

>> ^Shepppard:

@<a rel="nofollow" href="http://videosift.com/member/Xaielao" title="member since March 13th, 2009" class="profilelink">Xaielao
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're the only one who thinks the old battles were better. The old battles were slow.. and that MADE them unrealistic.
In a typical swordfight, I'm pretty sure you're not gonna hit 3 times in 5 seconds and stop. And I can probably back the rest of that up with Lore.
Despite being "The Chosen One", Luke was only trained when he was older. Yoda came close to showing off a jedi's true potential by lifting the X-wing out of the marsh, but at that point he was old, and likely hadn't used the force for ages since Luke had appeared.
The Jedi we see in the prequel trilogy had been raised since they were insanely young (Younger then the 9 year old Anakin, because someone even says "He's too old.") and whenever you see someone fighting they're not just a run-of-the-mill jedi, it's typically someone from the council, essentially, the cream of the crop.
And.. just on a last little rant about the swordplay.. they're Jedi. Again, people trained since they were extremely young to use the force as a guide. Qui gon Jin at one point even says something about "He can see glimpses of the future, it's a jedi trait." which again, is something that happens in battle making the fights faster and more epic. Jedi are essentially a partial ripoff of samurai anyway.. and if you don't think sword fighting can be that fast and action packed, watch a couple good Kendo matches.



I may be the only one (though I sometimes doubt that hehe, but I must disagree about the saber battles in the original. They were choreographed by Bob Anderson, one of the greatest holywood sword trainers ever. The guy is behind literally every major action movie with sword fighting in them from Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean to Highlander. The saber fights are slow I'll give you that, but they were slow for a reason. As I said they were choreographed in such a way that you could almost feel the battle of wills behind the sabers themselves.

@Xaielao

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're the only one who thinks the old battles were better. The old battles were slow.. and that MADE them unrealistic.

In a typical swordfight, I'm pretty sure you're not gonna hit 3 times in 5 seconds and stop. And I can probably back the rest of that up with Lore.

Despite being "The Chosen One", Luke was only trained when he was older. Yoda came close to showing off a jedi's true potential by lifting the X-wing out of the marsh, but at that point he was old, and likely hadn't used the force for ages before Luke had appeared.

The Jedi we see in the prequel trilogy had been raised since they were insanely young (Younger then the 9 year old Anakin, because someone even says "He's too old.") and whenever you see someone fighting they're not just a run-of-the-mill jedi, it's typically someone from the council, essentially, the cream of the crop.

And.. just on a last little rant about the swordplay.. they're Jedi. Again, people trained since they were extremely young to use the force as a guide. Qui gon Jin at one point even says something about "He can see glimpses of the future, it's a jedi trait." which again, is something that happens in battle making the fights faster and more epic. Jedi are essentially a partial ripoff of samurai anyway.. and if you don't think sword fighting can be that fast and action packed, watch a couple good Kendo matches.

SWORDFIGHT! SWORDFIGHT! SWORDFIGHT!

I like the fact that CNN feels like it needs to get into a swordfight with SNL over the facts. As if they're proud of being "more accurate" than a comedy show.

GG, CNN...

My thoughts:

1. Star Wars
On a whole different level as far as mythic filmmaking. Rings very deeply, almost universally, with people of our generation (I'm 33). It rings so deep that it's a better guide to basic humanity than most parents and religions.. or at least the OT is. Too bad the prequels get so confused with the morality, having Anakin basically just "turn evil" for what the average viewer takes out of the story. I really regret not attending the marathon OT screening which I bought tickets for in 1995.

2. Star Trek
A bit uneven, but in my opinion I, II, III, and VIII (First Contact) are classics in sci-fi/fantasy film. Part II, nobody can argue with. I don't think First Contact gets enough respect for having lots of action while hitting emotional beats, all with a tight plot. Yes it subverts the whole idea of the borg a bit, but they already did that with the TNG episodes about the borg "Hugh". Can't wait for the blu-ray of that film. Also pretty excited to see the new version, which I believe opens next week. One of the rare times lately that I'll be going out to see something rather than wait for the blu-ray.

3. Lord of the Rings
Also totally classic, but a bit repetitious with all the walking and swordfighting and hobbit jargon and slow-mo moony-face shots of Elijah Wood. Still, classic enough that I'll be buying it on blu-ray or maybe even the next higher-def format beyond that.

4. Harry Potter
Didn't read the books. Really didn't like the first film, found it all too precocious and tedious. Was curious enough mainly due to boredom at the time to see the second, which was a decent improvement in terms of relatability for the non-readership. Part 3 was frigging awesome, really liked the visual style and the story was satisfying, finally some real darkness. Part 4 was a bit boring, I think I fell asleep in the movie theatre. Recently watched part 5 on blu-ray, found it pretty amusing and like the visual style which is understated compared to part 3 but wonderfully art-designed. Looking forward to the next two movies although not exactly salivating.

5. The Matrix
What more can be said? Could have been the greatest. Could have unseated Star Wars. For my generation, the first one is an all-time, top-five classic regardless of genre, and from a certain POV can be taken as a hard sci-fi film. Then the second and third come along and they're just so far up their own asses that it's almost hard to watch. To put this in perspective I say that about Matrix Reloaded having seen it a total of six (possibly seven, can't remember) times in theatres.

I love that the first 30 seconds of the duel is done without a camera cut, even though they're doing complicated things and the cameraman is walking around the fight... hard to do that long a take in a professionally-staged swordfight, much less one by very talented amateurs done in their spare time....

I understand where you're coming from Nordlich. I mean, historical swordfighting is really neat, and the concept of mortal danger is one that does take away from many training possibilities. However, I really must protest some of your points.

"And we all know that real fights always come down to who wants to live the most, so in the end what you know doesnt matter its what you do in the fight that does."

The whole point of training with aliveness is to be able to use what one knows when it comes time to do so. By training against resisting partners, who are actually trying to whack you, it becomes that much easier to transition into fight mode and use moves when you're no longer sparring, but fighting.

Just like Tai Chi, the separation between the practice and application of the art is one that denotes its stagnation as an effective fighting art. It's a false dichotomy that is not seen in effective arts. In boxing, kyokushin karate, judo, and so many other arts, the practice is so close as to be one with the application.

And the main problem with most aikido is it doesn't work against non-compliant partners. Period. No training against resisting opponents means failure to use such moves when it counts the most. There's a reason why the Tokyo police who train aikido cross-train in a number of other arts, and spar on a regular basis, unlike the typical aikido dojo.

Swordfight!!! Swordfight!!!! LOL

Everything it says is true. I always thought the interactions at the base were alittle too fruity.