Movie
fighting.
The movie
‘Salt’ was playing the other night on television. It’s a movie starring Angelina Jolie and is filled with
spies, intrigue and action.
I’m not
going to provide a review of the movie itself, but I did quite enjoy it. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie
as I don’t really see Angelina as much of an action star.
One of the
reasons is that she is very thin, almost frail looking in my opinion. It’s tough for me to see that type of
person as someone capable of beating up lots of big strong bad guys.
This is
where she surprised me in Salt. I
found myself watching and re-watching the fight scenes, as many of us martial
viewers tend to do.
She pulled
it off. The fight scenes took into
account her slight stature. Her
moves involved whole body movement for power generation, and lots of circular
technique utilized to gain momentum and force. There was great use of elbows, low kicks and big weapons (i.e.
entire forearm). It also sure
looked like she put a lot of effort into the attacks.
It was some
of the best fighting I’ve seen with a female character. Some of it was over the top, but I
couldn’t help but think that most of it could have actually worked, especially
on much bigger opponents. I loved
the fact that whoever the fight choreographers were, they had taken into account
what a person of that height, weight and gender could potentially pull
off. The ‘dossier’ of her
character included training in hand-to-hand combat and the scenes supported
what we got to see watching the movie.
Angelina worked on a combination of Muay Thai and Krav Maga for her character, a deliberate choice to take into account her frame. Good for her and those she worked with. I also like the fact that the slightest tap didn't knock out her opponent as is often seen in movies featuring fight scenes.
I’m
enjoying the fact that more movies are including more realistic fight scenes
and featuring different martial arts.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re ultra-realistic since real
fighting is ugly and messy, but it’s come a long way.
Movie: 3.5/5 stars
Fighting: 4.0/5 stars
Warning: It’s not a movie for kids, there’s some
fairly graphic violence and disturbing scenes.
Here's the trailer from when it was released. Unfortunately I couldn't find any clips involving just her fight scenes that didn't ruin plot lines.
If anyone has seen the movie, I'd like your feedback.
Enjoy.
i've watched it but haven't really paid much attention to her techniques. i've recently watched taken (2008) however, and liam neeson was using quite some "to-the-point" techniques imo, which was quite interesting to watch.
ReplyDeleteyou should make more of these movie related posts :P