List five things you would have changed from The Force Awakens

Is this confirmed in the visual dictionary...?

 

1. More reaction after the Starkiller mission, to pay tribute to Han and the other resistance fighters who lost their lives. Maybe a medal ceremony where Chewie got one.
2. More Phasma - she is shown in a still at Maz' castle attack. I'd liked to have seen her face Finn, not the anonymous stormtrooper. She could still have been stopped by Han and it would have been more meaningful to run into her again on Starkiller base.
3. Have Phasma less of a walkover at Starkiller Base
4. Show us what happened to Maz. I know in an early cut she goes to the Resistance base with the others - why not show that?
5. The ending with Rey leaving felt rushed. I'd like to have seen a few more shots of other characters e.g. R2 saying goodbye to 3PO and BB-8 before boarding the Falcon, Poe and other pilots readying their ships for the next mission maybe with Ackbar in attendance, then Leia and Rey.

 

Yeah... I've been wondering about that.
I need to transcribe more of the movie...

Here's a question: if Starkiller moved after firing on the Hosnian system, how did Snap know where to look for it?

That was a Vanity Fair photoshoot... not necessarily a still from the movie.
The fact that Phasma was at the Starkiller rally, and not on the Star Destroyer with Kylo Ren, indicates that she

That got cut pretty early into things (in the last 8 months anyway). In the novel Maz talks to Finn before he heads off, telling him that she now sees in him, the eyes of a warrior, and mentions how she's got a lot of cleaning up to do.

 

1. My biggest gripe in the film is the Starkiller Assault. It could've been so much better. The issue is once you make a base like that, the only resolution is to blow it up. But ideally I'd have loved to see something other than the 3rd Act of the Phantom Menace, A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. It was quite weak. Starforge ftw.

2. Captain Phasma being so weak sauce. They could've given her a bigger role, right from leading the assault at the beginning, along with the attack on Takodana and facing off with Finn on the planet and maybe not getting blown up but losing to her protege. Then when Finn loses to Kylo, he's still got a win under his belt.

3. Whilst I really did like the Han/Kylo sequence, I do think them facing each other on Takodana would have given that scene more payoff. Sure, they were going for the 'We meet again at last. When I left you I was but a learner now I am the master' vibe, but unlike that sequence, we really have no visual stakes here.

4. The pacing at the beginning of the film was a little off. We were being jerked from one location to the other far too much. Also, whilst Finn had the blood on his helmet and then the panic attack, his rescue of Poe felt a little rushed. I'd have loved to see him breakout of reconditioning and then free Poe.

5. Rey being a little too good at stuff. I'm not even concerned about the Kylo/Rey duel as much as her just having a solution to everything. She needed a few jagged edges if we're nitpicking. By the end of the film she's the captain of the Falcon, Luke's likely apprentice and one of the strongest force users.

Eh. That's my list. Though I really just have a gripe with the Starkiller base. It got me annoyed.

 

Tracking ships is one thing... but how does one track beams that travel through a hole in the fabric of hyperspace...? It's a good thing Star Wars isn't science fiction.

2. Disney just wanted Phasma to survive. I was quite surprised that none of the major First Order players were killed off in the movie... I don't even think Lieutenant Mitaka was killed. Had Phasma faced Finn on Takodana and lost, she would have been dead...
In reality, they either should have had a lot more riot troopers, or none at all.

5. Well... her flying of the Falcon wasn't that great.... I mean, that takeoff...

 

I think she could've survived the duel by being injured. It would've at least given her reason to dislike Finn even more.

Regarding Rey, I agree in general. I just think they could've toned it down just a little. I've literally just come off debating Rey's abilities with someone who felt she was a symbol of forced feminism.

 

All I know is th

...don't forget, he made several appearances. We never had to fully let go of him

 

Was this an actual filmed scene?

 

There's a good chance... it was filmed.
There was plenty of other stuff filmed with Maz.

 

I wonder what George Lucas' story treatment was for the movie. I have the oddest feeling that Disney and Lucasfilm should have kept it.

 

I heard it featured some young 9-10 year old kids in lead roles.
That may have just been people being silly though.

EDIT: Yeah, I found an article mentioning things a little bit:


“Disney and Kathy decided they should consider other options,” as Abrams (not then involved) diplomatically put it. He said Lucas’s treatments had centered on very young characters—teenagers, Lucasfilm told me—which might have struck Disney executives as veering too close for comfort to The Phantom Menace and its 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker and 14-year-old Queen Amidala. “We’ve made some departures” from Lucas’s ideas, Kennedy conceded, but only in “exactly the way you would in any development process.”
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/05/star-wars-the-force-awakens-vanity-fair-cover

So in that regard at least, I'm glad Disney departed from it...

 

I can't imagine that that scene could have had more emotional impact...

 

Han believing that his son was dead... only to have him reveal himself before he kills him.

Or have a scene earlier (on the freighter perhaps) where Han runs from Kylo becuase he doesn't know how to deal with it... then, when Han finally gathers the courage to face him, it's all the more tragic when it ends.

 

I think someone either brought that up in Movie Fights or Jedi Council, but the issue is that it's far too Empire Strikes Back.

 

That's why I prefer the 2nd option. You can change up the freighter scene, and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.