8) The Effects We’ve Seen Don’t Entirely Convince
After the CGI-heavy prequels, kudos to Abrams for taking Star Wars back to its practical roots and doing as much ‘in-camera’ as possible. Of course, the whole thing was never going to be done entirely practically – this is an epic space opera, and the production team ignoring the fact that they now have computers at their disposal to do some of the effects heavy-lifting would have been like taking a painstaking step backwards.
Still, going on what we’ve seen in footage so far, the blend of practical and CGI isn’t totally seamless. Many of the shots from the film look gorgeous, but there are others that look a little bit video game-y. Nostalgia also plays a factor here – this is the first time we’ve seen X-Wings, Tie Fighters and the Millennium Falcon done in zeros and ones rather than crafted by hand.
Does the sight of a CGI’d Millennium Falcon really compare to the sight of an obviously physical version of the craft? Based on this evidence, no.