Sister blog of Physicists of the Caribbean in which I babble about non-astronomy stuff, because everyone needs a hobby

Wednesday, 21 December 2016

Rogue One and why it is quite good.

Rogue One and why it is quite good. Contains minor spoilers (e.g. which cameos, differences from the trailer) so you might want to avoid this if you prefer to know absolutely nothing before seeing the movie.

The Force Fell Flat, But Now It's Picked Itself Up And Is Whistling Nonchalantly And Hoping No-One Noticed Its Embarrassing Slip-Up

Disclaimer : This post contains extremely minor details which I don't believe will spoil your enjoyment of the film. However, if you're a purist, you shouldn't read this post until after you've seen the movie. You have been warned.

7 comments:

  1. I agree Tarkin looked as nearly perfect as we've seen to date, but Leia fell flat -- ironic, given her minimal screen time.

    As usual, so did the physics -- most of which I actually didn't mind, but a planetary force field? F**k that, and f**k the idiots who thought any part of it made sense. (Then again, they thought an FTL moon made sense, too. Cretins.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah, well, analysing the physics of Star Wars is a lot like analysing the physics of gingerbread houses... can't say I see any particular problem with a planetary force field though. I enjoyed the Leia scene, but the CGI wasn't as polished as Tarkin. Almost, but not quite.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah but you see, that planetary force field is the whole reason for the existence of the Death Star, because said force field is impervious to the amount of energy a fleet of normal starships can produce. Rebellious planets could hide under their impenetrable force fields and indefinitely flip off the Emperor... not anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The problem with a force field like that is that it would require a planet-scale power source -- and we're not talking geothermal or solar, either. Such a power source would dwarf that inside the Death Star and would be an obvious target for a contingent who made it inside (as here) or even from outside (how long before something blows if you set up oscillations at the resonant frequency?). Hell, toss a couple of asteroids at it at sublight speeds and boom, game over.

    But yes, I'm being silly... Star Wars is more fantasy than science fiction, and poking holes in its physics makes about as much sense as doing so for Rowling's version of Harry Potter.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yep that is exactly why Star Wars is fantasy. Personally I prefer some hardness with my space opera which is why I'm greatly enjoying the Antares trilogy by aerospace engineer Michael McCollum.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Greg Roelofs Your comment about chucking asteroids at the force field is what bothers me about the Halo series. The UNSC's spaceships are armed with Magnetic Accelerator Cannons that fire 600-ton slugs at 30 km/s and the Covenant's force fields block it like they're shooting marshmallows.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've seen a few comments around about how the early trailers featured things that didn't make it through the editing (and re-shooting).

    ReplyDelete

Due to a small but consistent influx of spam, comments will now be checked before publishing. Only egregious spam/illegal/racist crap will be disapproved, everything else will be published.

Review : Pagan Britain

Having read a good chunk of the original stories, I turn away slightly from mythological themes and back to something more academical : the ...