1. Duel of the Fates - Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
It's almost as if George Lucas knew he'd screwed us: by the time
The Phantom Menance had reached its 100th minute, fans everywhere were ready to pour out into the streets and throw up in unison. What had the director done to
Star Wars? Who was Jar-Jar Binks? Why was Anakin that kid from
Jingle all the Way? And although these questions were feverishly playing on the minds of all who saw
Star Wars: Episode I, there was one moment in the movie - call it a finale, if you will - where we all briefly forgot about how horrible it had been for most of its runtime. The Duel of the Fates, which pretty much gave us the greatest lightsaber battle of all time, and the one we all deserved. As Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn go up against devilish Sith apprentice Darth Maul (wielding a double-lightsaber, no less),
Star Wars fans were momentarily blown away (and thankfully distracted), having finally glimpsed a lightsaber duel that matched the ones we'd worked up in our imaginations for decades (not to mention how awesome John William's orchestral score made this sequence). There's no way to apologise for what comes before this part of the movie, of course, but it's a pretty good attempt at making a slight amends.
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