Second Opinion: Top Three Movie Space Battles

A random reader who goes by the moniker ‘GoldLeader’ had a lot to say about my top three pics for best space battles in TV and film. So much so, in fact, that when I challenged him to put together his suggestions, he did, in spades. So, here’s guest blogger GoldLeader’s top three movie space battles!

Number Three: ‘The Reavers Cometh’, Serenity.

The first time I saw Serenity I didn’t have any knowledge of Firefly or anything. I was really impressed with the movie as a whole. I wasn’t really expecting a space battle either, to I was quite surprised when it happened.

Serenity - The Alliance fleet comes face-to-face with the Reaver horde

As far as visuals and scale Star Wars Episode 3′s is better, but Joss Whedon really keeps you on the edge of your seat with dramatic tension, as well as some humor mixed in. My only real complaint is that it was too short - but as with Return of the Jedi, the script didn’t really allow for it. The great sound effects and musical score really draw you in as well. Despite its short length, the battle really worked in my opinion.

Number Two: The Battle of Endor, Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi

This battle would’ve really benefited from about 5 more minutes, and not been intercut with the Luke vs. Vader and surface Endor battle. In all honesty the plot would have be tweaked and reworked for this battle to be my top pick.

If you look at the climax of Return as a whole, it all comes together very nicely. I’m just biased toward space battles, so it doesn’t rank as well in my book. The detail is pretty good too, I remember pausing and slowing down the action on my VCR years ago, just to catch every Star Destroyer getting blasted and every TIE fighter vaporized.

Even the scenes with Luke looking out of the viewports of the second Death Star are pretty good. You really get a sense of how massive the Super Star Destroyer (The ’Executor’ – Andy) is, as well as see the battle taking place from afar. Like I said, it’s a close second, it would be my first pick with a little more length added and some tweaking.

Number One: The Battle of Yavin, Star Wars: A New Hope

This is by far the best space battle I’ve seen. It is the standard on which I base all space battles. (Star Wars or otherwise).

Despite its age I can watch that sequence and it still blows me away. It has a really good build up, starting with the briefing on Yavin 4, then the pre-flight with Red leader and Biggs.

The fighters launch off, all of the fighters report in, and who can forget “Lock S-foils in attack position”. All that preparation just builds up to the imminent battle. Once you get to the battle itself its a great piece of cinema. John William’s score keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. It is pure dogfighting.

There aren’t any Ewoks, lightsaber duels, or buzz droids to break the pace. The battle is stripped down to its bare essentials – blasting TIE fighters into space dust!

The best part is when Wedge saves Luke from certain death. He then proceeds to fly through the fresh remains of a TIE fighter he just obliterated. Badass. Screw the Force, if it wasn’t for Wedge, Luke would’ve been blown to atoms (I love Wedge too, epic character – Andy).

Heck, I wouldn’t put it past Wedge to take out the Death Star either. He even took a pretty good beating from Vader and brushed it off.

To top it off, the end was great, with Han blasting Vader into deep space, al la deus ex machina. To this day I can watch that scene and be convinced that Luke is done for, when Vader locks on to his X-Wing.

One can argue that the latest CGI space battles from Stargate, Battlestar or Star Trek can look better or have a larger scale than the Battle of Yavin. Despite the fact the visual effects might be aged, there is no denying that the sound effects and John William’s score are top notch. All of it comes together in a package that stands the test of time.

Conclusions:

To have a great space battle three key things are needed: visuals, sound effects, and musical score. All of these work together to build dramatic tension.

Plot elements are involved as well, but aren’t really key. Wing Commander had some decent space combat, but the plot was rather poor. Battlestar Galactica space battles are good, but they would be great with solid sound effects. All of the sound effects are muted.

I read somewhere that this is to illustrate that sound is absent in space. While true, poor sound really takes any tension out of any battle. When you have nukes, rail guns and missiles exploding everywhere you want to hear them! If you want realism watch a documentary, if you want to have a fun time, put some dang sound in space!

The more recent space battles we see in cinema and TV also like to have what I call a “disjointed camera in space”. Battlestar is one of the most guilty culprits.

The camera its always zooming in and out of the battle, its not really focusing on any single event. It really alienates (no put intended) the crowd from the battle itself. The audience feels like third-party observers as opposed to participants.

This is another reason I simply think that the Battle of Yavin is the best. All of it is close camera angles, half of the time your either in the cockpit of a starfigher or in an “over the wing” shot. Compared to recent space battles it even feels a bit “claustrophobic”, not that its a bad thing.

Modern TV/movies could really benefit from a little more “camera claustrophobia” in the battle scenes. Not a lot more -I still like the wide angle shots of huge battles. The Battle of Endor had a great balance of wide/close angle shots to keep the tension.