But, I too found the new hand a bit strange: unlike your other changes, this one DID jump out "look at me I'm new!".
When I first saw it I thought "The lighting's off", so I thought I'd try flipping the flipper in The Gimp:
It's a quick and dirty edit, but I think it looks a lot more realistic this way, no?
The new Death Star intro is amazing, but there's something wrong with the way the ships move... it's probably just me though.
I also really liked the added music in the conference room scene after that, but the parts where there's no music are... well, quiet.
I think those are the only parts that bothered me, I really, really loved what you did with the film, and I can't wait to see this in DVD quality
DarthBo
[edit]
Here's the original pic for comparison:
