My problem with the lightsaber duels in the PT is seeing everyone swinging for each other’s lightsabers all the time, instead of their bodies. Sure, the choreography was very well-practiced, but that was the problem.
A real lightsaber fight wouldn’t be practiced in advance. It would be spontaneous. They shouldn’t know where to swing for EVERY move, before it even happens. In my opinion, that reduces the impact of even having a lightsaber.
And they whipped them out for every little thing. In the OT, when a lightsaber was drawn, the room got quiet. In the PT, it was every other scene. I get that it was a different time period, but I don’t care for that excuse. If Lucas had simply limited the amount of time you saw a lightsaber in the PT, he wouldn’t even have to write a spectacular scene for those moments. You would immediately feel excitement from the sight of the lightsaber. If Obi-Wan had never used his lightsaber until the fight with Darth Maul in Episode I, the scene would have been infinitely more impactful [sic] with the exact same shots.
I always thought that the Jedi were supposed to use the Force to anticipate the next moves of their adversaries, so it is not supposed to look spontaneous.
Considering that the lightsaber is the weapon of a Jedi Knight, I am not sure why you would want less screen time dedicated to Jedi Knights using lightsabers. Surely you would not want for them to use blasters instead.