List five things you would have changed from The Force Awakens

Again, the story/screenplay is the weakest thing about this film BY FAR. The cast, characters, and overall tone save it.
Bottom line, if this film wasn't running at a breakneck pace for its entire duration then it would have been prequels, take 2.
I get the feeling, considering how much was cut out and what those scenes were, that Abrams and Kennedy realized this in post and decided to gamble on less story, more energy. I've read several critiques from writers and script doctors that this is painfully obvious to them, just based on the dangling threads.

 

This and what if there is more to that scene- it puzzled me when Ren was stating the obvious " still you want to kill me" and that took off his mask. It seems that he wanted to look approachable. As we all know a mask has the psychological effect to make you seem more isolated and difficult to approach.

 

The Rathtor scene could've been shorter, although I like Han's bantering w/ the other smugglers.

More explanation of who Snoke is/was.

The resistance to be a little stronger/bigger. They seemed pretty puny...lol

The hitter salute...I get what he was trying to accomplish but I just hate seeing it, makes my skin crawl! Ugh!

 

Kind of like how they explained Emperor Palpatine in the Original Trilogy? (They never did)

That's kind of the point. The Galaxy has been at peace for 30 years. Most of the Republic are blissfully unaware of the looming threat of the First Order.
Why are people going to join some underground organisation which they don't even think they need?

 

Good point about Palpatine. Yeah, I guess they didn't in the other trilogies either.

 

Over all, I was pretty happy with the movie, but after thinking on it, there were some things that kinda bugged me...

1. On Jakku, when Finn starts running from the explosion, he leads with his LEFT foot. Everyone knows that the First Rule of Survival on Desert Planets is ALWAYS Lead with the RIGHT FOOT!
2. It's over 30 years after The Battle of Endor and there's no Space Winnebago!? WTF?*
3. Rey's a survivor and knows to use what's handy to defend herself. So why didn't she shake that can of soda, pop the lid and spray Ren with a stream of Doctor Pepper! (I believe it was the great dramatist Chekhov who said "If you introduce a can of soda in the 1st act, you have to Pop&Spray in the 3rd!" ... or words to that effect...)
4. George Lucas said that he didn't like that they played it safe and went retro. I agree. Innovate! Take risks! That's why I'm SO DISAPPOINTED that there was no Tap Dancing Twi'leks sequence.
5. How can anyone call this The Muppets Awaken without Kermit?
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*Before I get a language warning... WTF is short for "What The Force". (Sheesh).

 

1. I would have had BB-8 shown trying to wake up R2 (as they did), then later have a scene with him still trying. Banging him with his head, using his blow torch and shocking him, trying to pull open his compartments with suction cups, etc. It would have been funny. Then as he gives up and sadly puts his head down, R2 wakes up!

2. Snoke should not have been a giant hologram like Palpatine was. He should have been a voice only. No image. That would have driven the Plaguis fans nuts!

3. The Resistance should have had Y-Wings/A-Wings and the First Order should have had Tie Interceptors.

4. Starkiller should have been a huge capital ship, not a planet.

5. During the battle at Maz's castle, they should have shown more aliens from the watering hole fighting the Stormtroopers. It would have been cool to see the different species fighting in different ways.

 

But where would they fit the lightsaber duel in the snow?

 

Yeah, that would be a problem. I still would rather Star Killer not be Death Star 3.0.

 

I actually don't mind the "sun-crushing" element to it. In the art book, it talks about this idea they had, that the Dark Side grew on fear, and so the First Order were literally plunging the galaxy into darkness, to essentially feed the Dark Side on the fear that creates...
But then they went and focused more on planet destroying laser beam aspect of everything.


If you take away the Starkiller weapon subplot, you have to change a lot of the plot. Either, make Rey significantly more important to the plot, so that Leia is eager to rescue her (which would have taken the character far away from the "nobody" they wanted her to be) OR, simply don't have Rey captured at all.

 

I loved the films but i would change some things:
1, I would have had a stronger reason to introduce the falcon... it felt quite forced.
2, I would have had a scene between Han and Ben/Kylo earlier in the film, probably outside Maz's it would add much more emotional weight to Hans death.
3, Not have had Rey so easily defeat Kylo at the end, it made him look really weak and not at all a threat for the rest of the story.
4, Not had the starkiller base, it was two similar to the death star.
5, Shown a reason why Artoo woke up at the end, just seemed to happen for no reason

 

1. In order to introduce the Falcon differently, the whole story would have needed to be reworked. I'm okay with the Falcon reveal knowing Han and Chewie were looking for it and that it was shut down by Unkar Plutt so nobody would find it.

2. It's curious that Kylo didn't go looking for Han at Maz's castle. It may have worked better if he held Han hostage to flush out Rey and BB-8. They could have had a moment then.

3. Kylo is a fraud in my opinion. He hasn't been tested. Rey on the other hand has had to survive and actually FIGHT people. Not use her powers. I think you saw the polar opposites in Kylo and Rey. Rey was street ready and didn't use her powers. Kylo used his mental powers but wasn't ready for a real fight. Especially when Rey tapped into the force and "let it control her actions (partially) and also obey her commands"

4. See my post above. I wanted a Capital ship that could drain the sun, fire and move onto different systems.

5. See my post above. BB-8 should have been shown to directly wake him up. OR, maybe show BB-8 lead Rey to R2 and as soon as she gets there he wakes up.

 

yeh that would of been nice,

 

She saw it, just not in person.

 

or she felt it, I'm not sure if we're splitting hairs there though. She was aware of his lost to her. what i was referring to is to of physically been there as part of the raiding party?

 

Re: Starkiller - They should have explained exactly how it works. Does it have hyperspace capabilities? If not, is it seriously just useless after two tries?

As for plot mechanics, at times the film feels like a fan trying too hard to capture the feel of A New Hope. We only hear about the senate in ANH, but since it isn't destroyed like Hosnian Prime is, it makes zero sense to not give the New Republic's political situation a bit more meat. I love Leia's new introduction, but they could have worked around that by having Korr Sella reporting to an unseen figure, just explaining that the senate is not complying to Leia's requests for more aid. Some context for what this planet is and who these people are. I also wish Hux said "Republic capital" instead of "the Republic" when launching Starkiller. Pretty much everyone I've spoken to was confused, and most thought the planet was Coruscant.

 

1. The problem is they wanted Rey to inherit it. They didn't want to give her a ship which she's never seen before. There's really only 2 ways they could have changed it:
- Make it Rey's ship to begin with.
- Destroy it in the movie so that Rey doesn't inherit it.
2. Or the Freighter. Kylo Ren could have boarded Han's freighter.
3. see @techsteveo 's reply.

2. I think they were really playing up Kylo's interest in "the girl." Everytime he hears about "the girl", he loses focus on the task at hand. He even priorities her, over BB-8.
3. Exactly. Too many people are wanting Kylo Ren to be another Vader. They are missing the point entirely.

I believe Pablo Hidalgo has talked about how it swallows up a sun, fires, then moves onto another system, swallowing up another sun to charge it's weapon.

Technically speaking, the senate was "destroyed" in ANH.
Tarkin makes the comment that the Emperor had dissolved it.

That would be a bit too awkward. The movie takes us to Takodana, and suddenly it cuts
What we really would have needed, was Poe Dameron's story from the crash, through to him arriving on D'Qar and reporting to Leia, who then communicates with Korr Sella, based on information from Poe. There simply wasn't enough time in the movie for all of this... and it would have ruined Poe's reveal on Takodana.

 

That's good to know, and I figured as much... but it wasn't explained at all in the film. Starkiller itself - from its existence to the plan to destroy it - felt pulled out of someone's ass at the last minute.

A mass layoff isn't quite the same as the total destruction of an entire solar system and its inhabitants.

They way it was filmed initially makes that difficult, yes. But Poe's journey is also lacking; I would have somehow tied Poe to Korr Sella. Maybe he tries out some Resistance frequencies while trying to get off Jakku and only manages to reach Korr, and there's a brief exchange about where she is and what she's doing.

 

that still doesn't fix the issue that we go into episode 8 with Kylo not even vaguely seeming like a threat. even if they train him up, the fact he was so easily defeated by Rey, you arnt going to worry about her when they next face.

they also have Phasma looking week and fairly pointless, and Hux and Snoke at the moment just looking like generic bad guys.

The villains are going to need a lot of attention in episode 8.

 

Ideas for Starkiller started as early as March 2013...
The interior sets were also some of the designs that they spent longest on.

As I was saying, they wanted the audience to believe Poe was dead, to make his appearance on Takodana more of a surprise.... kind of like Han Solo's surprise appearance at the Death Star.
A kind of unnecessary twist, especially considering all the promo material that showed up later in the movie, especially since it prevented him from having much screen time to make his surprise appearance all that meaningful.

I don't think Kylo is supposed to be the main threat in episode VIII. I'm guessing the main threat is going to be Snoke, with Kylo Ren possibly coming into his own because of him.