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Fight Scene Failure: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"This [fight] is obviously staged, and more to the point, it's staged poorly."''|'''General Tarquin''', ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0783.html Strip #783]}}
[[Captain Obvious|All fighting you see on TV is fake]]. Producers just can't have their actors ''actually'' hitting each other, as most do not wish to be held liable for broken bones, stitches, etc. So, fight scenes in movies have to be cleverly staged to make it ''appear'' as though they are real, but in such a way so that nobody ''really'' gets hurt.
Sometimes this is [[Awesome Moments|pulled off extremely well]], making for one hell of a great fight scene.
But, this page is about when it ''isn't'' pulled off so well -- can be due to a number of factors, but usually can be attributed to poor choreography, [[Executive Meddling]], or simply poor acting. But regardless of the reason, the whole fight scene comes out looking extremely corny and stupid to the viewers and the characters look like utter buffoons.
A [[Subjective Trope]], of course (though let's be real here... some of the examples that follow are so bad that even the most liberal "benefit-of-the-doubt" interpretation comes up as 'Yeah, that sucks'). Compare [[Special Effects Failure]]. See [[Wimp Fight]] and [[What the Fu Are You Doing?]] for when this is done deliberately. If the Fight Scene Failure fails and someone really does get hit, expect the producers to [[Throw It In]].
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]]''. Although other fights in the movie ranged from merely poor to passable, the scene where Peter Parker fights with Flash Thompson in a school corridor was especially bad. It's not that this fight was a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] (that's to be expected, after all, since it is intended to illustrate Peter's newly-aquired super-reflexes and strength), its that even ''Peter's'' blows are widely telegraphed and obviously don't connect with anything but air. The mugging done by actors Tobey Maguire and Joe Manganiello (playing Peter Parker and Flash Thompson, respectively) also conspire to make the whole affair look ''silly''.
* ''[[Dolemite]]'': Scenes are shot from the wrong angle, so it's obvious that punches miss.
* At the end of ''[[Leviathan (film)|Leviathan]]'', when Peter Weller punches the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] there's at least three inches of air between his fist and her.
* The [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Force_kick "force kick"] from ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''. Basically, a mook reacts to being kicked despite Luke's foot hitting nothing but air, so fans devised the "explanation" that he was actually using the Force.
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* The infamous scene in ''[[Las Vegas Bloodbath]]'' where a man takes a swing at Sam with a bat, and hits a just barely offscreen mat.
* The ''[[Street Fighter (film)|Street Fighter]]'' movie is ''made'' of this, especially the final battle between Guile and Bison -- '''[[Large Ham|OF COURSE!]]'''
* ''[[Unknown Island]]'' has a fight between a giant ground sloth and a Ceratosaur which looks more like a waltz.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The 1960s TV series ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' Cathy Gale's fighting style is made of this trope. Back then, fight scenes would be recorded 'as live' on studio video with no possibility for editing or retakes, rather than being pre-filmed and edited.
* The original ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek]]'' was bad for this:
** "[[Star Trek/Recap/S1
** "Arena": [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eFdUSnaQM "Worst Fight Scene Ever"]; the guy in the Gorn suit moves slow, apparently in an attempt to make the Gorn look big and ponderous... but it makes the fight seem ridiculous. As one critic said about the Gorn's attempt to swipe at Kirk, "[[Stephen Hawking]] could have dodged that one."
*** Not to mention that he apparently has the strength to hurl a huge boulder, but Kirk can hold his own against him in grappling. And those teeth seem to be completely useless, you'd think it would occur to him to ''bite'' Kirk.
** Those scenes were of course not helped by [[Chewing the Scenery|Kirk]] taking time rolling over and over and over to make his plight look worse, leaving the [[Monster of the Week]] standing around waiting for Kirk to get back up for the next spectacular throw and fall.
** Not to mention the fight scene between Kirk and Spock in "[[Star Trek/Recap/S2
*** Likely deliberate, as the man who wrote the episode (Theodore Sturgeon) was infamous for putting gay subtext into his works ... and using asphyxiation as a metaphor for sex.
** Many, many, many fight scenes in later series have shots where it is obvious that one actor just held still and let the other fake-punch them. Fans have jokingly dubbed it "Kirk-fu".
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* Parodied on ''[[The Fast Show]]''. They showed a clip from a 'new British gangster movie'. The title was a parody of ''[[The Long Good Friday]]'', ''The Long Big Punch Up''. It was basically two blokes on a bit of wasteland, just doing one really slow, telegraphed, obviously wide of the mark punch after another. [[Overly Long Gag|Over and over again]].
* A frequent occurrence in the black-and-white era of ''[[Doctor Who]]''; as with ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' above, most of the early stuff had to be done in one take. This notably improved as the show went on.
* Many fights on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' are made of this trope. Also, any time swords are brought on to either ''Buffy'' or ''Angel''.
** Overlaps with Obvious [[Stunt Double]] when Buffy and Angel swordfight in the season 2 finale. As soon as the camera pulls back, Buffy grows several inches, and Angel has a drastically receding hairline.
** [[Lampshaded]] by Joss in his DVD commentary for ''Hush:'' "Look! Buffy's strapped on her fighting boobs!"
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** And used as a plot-point in Season 3. Shaw fakes a rescue of Chuck and Sarah which includes shooting 3 enemy agents, and having a fight with 2 more. There is some horrible stage fighting, with punches and kicks being missed all over the place. It turns out that he's a double agent and the fight was staged intentionally.
*** It's also telling that the only person who figured out that Shaw was faking was Morgan, thanks to many-many hours of watching bad [[Fuxia|kung-fu movies]]. All the CIA/NSA experts watching the footage took it at face value.
* [[Supernatural (TV series)|Castiel's]] actor [[Misha Collins]] appeared to have little stage fighting experience in season 4, making some of his fight scenes look mildly awkward. He improved massively in season 5.
* ''[[Knight Rider]]'' is infamous for this, too: The proper way to knock someone out is to swing one's fist past their stunt double (who'd look nothing like the real deal if they weren't wearing roughly the same clothes) at a distance of 2 ft.
* On ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' we had Marian punch out Guy of Gisborne at the altar. Her fist ''clearly'' doesn't connect with his face. Other fight scenes amongst the outlaws were rather clumsy, particularly whenever Robin blocked a sword-blow from an opponent with his bow. ''It's made of wood, people!'' And the fight between Robin and Guy in ''Tattoo, What Tattoo?'' involves both actors obligingly lining themselves up for the other one to more easily punch them.
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[There Will Be Brawl]]'': In some scenes the fights are just too slow to look realistic. Episode 10 is a big one.
* [[TGWTG Year One Brawl|The]] [[That Guy With The Glasses]] [[Battle Royale With Cheese]] is made of this, but it's justified considering they're reviewers and not professional stunt people, nor would they be likely to find doubles.
** It's arguable that they're doing it [[Stylistic Suck|on purpose]] for the [[Rule of Funny]]. The cartoonish sound effects don't help matters.
** In his commentary over the N. Bison/Dr. Insano fight in [[Kickassia]], Film Brain reminds people disappointed in the fight that they were in another person's house and had to be careful not to mess it up, so what we got really was the best thing possible, especially considering the time and money issues.
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