Deepfake is getting better, there’s no doubt of that, especially since Tarkin doesn’t look like a walking cadaver in this clip and Leia’s face doesn’t look like it’s about slide off of her head. It’s a weird thing to say honestly but that was the first impression on watching Rogue One since the CGI at that point was still kind of iffy even after all the advances that had been made with it. But if anyone remembers, and a lot of people do since it wasn’t that long ago, the look of Tarkin in Rogue One was that of a man that might be on the last legs of a wasting illness and is still standing on little more than willpower. But when one really thinks about it, Tarkin has never been the kind of character that looked entirely healthy, even though Peter Cushing was in his 60s and obviously wasn’t a young man anymore. A fun fact is that he actually wanted to play Obi-Wan Kenobi but couldn’t do it since he was scheduled for another movie at the same time and Tarkin’s roles were easy to film since they were so much shorter than Kenobi’s. So of course the role went to Alec Guinness, who couldn’t stand his role in the movie, which is ironic as hell.
Ingvild Deila played the part of Princess Leia with CGI helping her to look like Carrie Fisher while her own acting was a product of Ingvild studying the character and the act for months before finally taking her place in front of the screen. Guy Henry was responsible for Tarkin, but unless one is a big fan and knows who these actors are and what they’ve done it’s far more likely that people will end up being amazed at the CGI effects, or not, and not worry too much about who was providing the body and acting skills for each character. That’s one notable problem with CGI is that unless people know who’s behind the animated effect it’s kind of a waste for the actor to be there, even though they’re getting a chance to be a part of something special. It’s a divisive issue really since they still get to act but they don’t get to show their own face, at least not in this production since to do simply replace two iconic figures such as Leia and Tarkin would be enough to really stoke the anger of a lot of fans that don’t like anything being changed. Star Wars fans can be incredibly toxic as people already know since there are plenty of those that follow the story that would gladly talk someone’s ear off if they so much as offered a dissenting opinion concerning their favorite pop culture icons.
It is and it isn’t hard to imagine why Tarkin grew to be such a popular and well-known character, and I’ll explain that. It is since he didn’t really get into the action that much if at all, he wasn’t a combatant, he didn’t have much of anything to do with the battles apart from being the top guy on the Death Star that everyone, even Vader, had to answer to in some way. But it’s not hard to imagine since he was a fixture throughout the first movie, which was as far as he lasted since he was blown up with the first Death Star after refusing to acknowledge that there was a possibility that the Rebels might find the station’s weakness, which is still a huge argument just waiting to happen. Throughout the animated Clone Wars series, he became far more prominent as he rose in the ranks and even worked with the Jedi. His character never became much better since he’s always been ruthless, but Tarkin is the type of evil that can be measured if not easily overcome, and despite his bearing and the severity of his character he’s more of a placeholder than anything since apart from his critical and analytic mind and harsh demeanor, there isn’t much else there. People can argue all they want, but the fact is that Tarkin was a character that was imposing while he was around, but was little more than a man that knew how to wield authority. He was a governor, then a moff, and he knew how to handle power, that much is evident.
Leia is a slightly more sensitive character since getting her wrong in any way probably would have unleashed a torrent of abuse on whoever messed up in such a manner. Princess Leia is one of the characters that fan would become rabid for if she was ever misrepresented or shown in any other light, but Deepfake makes both characters look pretty good to be quite honest and it’s a hope that any Star Wars movies using CGI from this point will take notes.
Follow Us
