Comments on: Craziest Fight Scene Ever

By: vid

vid — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:34:21 +0000

Although still impressive technically, I think the main problem is that the camera is never really close up to the fight so it doesn’t seem as intense. That’s a problem you’d have with one take. It means only one angle and lugging that camera fast enough up those stairs makes it difficult to keep up with Jaa.

The difference with guys like Jackie, Tony and Jet is that they can fight for this long in one take whereas most hollywood action stars require the fast cutting and multiple angles because there is so much complicated choreography in a good fight scene. I cite Drunken Master II and Black Mask as a couple of examples, there are of course many.

Many hong kong action movies have really long takes where it’s just two guys whailing on each other while hollywood action movies of late make so many cuts you have no idea what the hell is going on. ie: Bourne movies, SWAT.

Seeing Jackie Chan or Jet Li up close against a single equally skilled opponent without cutting I find to be infinitely more exciting than one with a lot of cuts. Those guys just move so damn fast. I will admit that a controlled amount of cutting and different angles can certainly enhance the action and compensate for a rather weak fighting scene by making it seem more visceral and exciting. Sometimes this works in some of Bourne’s better fight scenes but sometimes you just have a headache figuring out what just happened.

By: Lars

Lars — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:13:44 +0000

I really like long takes, but as other posters already said: It’s the same thing over and over again. In my opionion the action sequences in “Children of Men” are much better because the action is much more complex (think the war zone in the ghetto or the car sequence) and the takes are even longer. Of course they used CGI, but properly used it is a legitimate tool.

By: Christian Seehausen

Christian Seehausen — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:23:36 +0000

Unbelievable that he managed to get all that in one take. It reminds me more of a play than a movie, except more ambitious than any play I’ve ever seen. The biggest challenge with any really long take like this is maintaining the energy, especially in a fight scene, and that’s where I think this falls flat. With a couple of exceptions, the scene doesn’t feel very kinetic–without any fast cuts and without particularly spectacular stunts (except a couple) it’s hard to get very excited about what’s going on.

By: Anti-Ceptic

Anti-Ceptic — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:46:36 +0000

Tony Jaa’s fight scenes are always amazing, too bad his movies leave me so depressed. If the could only combine these amzing fight scenes with a semblance of plot it would be a huge win. The editing on this fight scene was very good, but editing throughout the movie is horrible. There is just very little plot to carry this film.

Tony has been working with Hong Kong Directors as of late so I think we will start seeing some better high quality movies from him.

By: calviin

calviin — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:03:38 +0000

I felt like I was watching a video game. The camera following instead of using cuts to follow the main character felt like any regular third person video game I’ve played. Cinematic, sure, but still had the game feel. I did like it.

Somehow, WordPress is telling me this is a duplicate comment, yet I don’t see any other instance of a comment from me in this post.

By: Gordon Shumway

Gordon Shumway — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:13:41 +0000

Thought Ong Bak overall was better but this is a major highlight of ‘Warrior King’ as its called in the UK.

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:53:29 +0000

Cant believe you havent seen these movies. Some of the best recent martial arts stuff out there. Get Tony Jaa in a hollywood film without Chris Tucker and it will be great.

By: Erika

Erika — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:41:41 +0000

Ummm. It kinda looks like a video game. It is cool to look at. =D

By: parker

parker — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:37:48 +0000

Shaky cam is better because the truth of it is the mind needs to fill in a little bit of the move transitions, when you see it all in one shot like that it looks very choreographed, which sucks. That is partly why in the name of the kind was so bad, no shaky cam and those fight scenes were terrible.
Just my opinion though, I just did not like this one, but the Ong Bak 2 trailer looks amazing and Tony Jaa definitely deserves respect for his martial arts.

By: nevada smith

nevada smith — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:41:19 +0000

Totally agree with finaljoe above-all I kept thinking was that it looked like a poorly choreagraphed dance. the prep work must have been massive and one shot always seems impressive-but it looked rehearsed-where these type of shots really only work if it looks fluid and natural-this just looked like everyone was waiting for their cue and then stepping in.