Yes, but if "Vader duels Luke and chops off his hand" was cut out entirely, the story wouldn't make sense. If the Paris sequence in G.I. Joe was removed, the story would not suffer at all. You could cut the Vader fight and just have Luke explain it later, but it's the climactic moment of that film, and it is essential, unlike the entire Paris scene.

A. Good point.

B. Did you really just spoiler-text a Star Wars plot point on the Down in Front forum?

Heh heh heh. That's my point, tho. You can't yada-yada-yada the Vader-Luke fight. It's got THINGS in it!

I will say that, sometimes, action-for-the-sake-of-action is great. Because maybe it's the payoff to some build-up ("Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.") or speaks to character in a broad way ("Oh shit. Everybody HOLD ON!") or whatever.

Still, a GREAT action scene is certainly one that has THINGS in it. The hero unmasks the baddie, shows his mettle, saves somebody, stops the monster, or whatever.

One of the panelists mentioned a blog post refuting the claim of "It's fucking transformers, what did you expect?" Anyone know where I can find that?

Ah thank you, and can someone please for the love of the gods put a comma in that image, it drives me nuts everytime I see it.