Darth Venal said:

Bingowings:

That's interesting as it makes out the super laser is more than just a very big laser.

I love the way the atmosphere seems to be getting hit by an enormous aurora (which it possibly would be for a fraction of a second).

Well, I never bought the notion that one big laser can hit a planet and obliterate it as soon as it touches it. Something doesn't have to be quick to look powerful, and if anything, when dealing with a body as massive as a planet, I think it really should take time.

That aurora effect is quite nice, and I figured, just because it's destructive doesn't mean it can't also be beautiful. With audio, of course, it's going to sound like an awfully destructive aurora!

I can understand where you're coming from, but also think atomic bomb or anti-matter. Those don't take too much time to instantly vaporizing large areas.. >:)

Not to mention you have to consider the pacing of the thing too. The laser blows the planet up and we immediately go to Ben feeling their demise. The more protracted the Alderaan explosion, the more it could throw the timing or feeling of the movie off (kinda like the "Ben dies" scene in ANH:R - the music ques kinda crash into each other, resulting in the "Luke's shock" que feeling a little off for me - not time wise, but having 3 dramatic music ques in less than 3 to 5 seconds one after the other).

Then again, the above stuff DOES look pretty cool... I was pretty happy with the original explosion (the Stargate one is pretty good, but still a little too CG for STAR WARS). If anything, the explosion would probably be more like the Jupiter one in 2010 (white light and circular top-to-bottom explosion ring to indicate a sphere, as opposed to the horizontal explosion rings from STARGATE or STAR TREK VI).

But that's just me. I would still love to see this in full motion...