ST What you would have done differently?

I think the problem is not that they are not happy but the setting does not make sense..
Luke would not betray his friends? Why does Han leave Leia?
Maybe it might not be a problem but I understand why people have trouble with this... they kind of feel betrayed.

I don't know about Luke because I think that he has a major reason to leave and it might turn to be a very interesting reason but I too have a problem Han being reseted.
He should of just stick with Leia but feel kind of weaker after losing his son.

 

The bigger issue for me is that the film doesn't really focus on these things either.

Abrams basically wants to play with OT Han and kill him off for dramatic effect but really it would have made more sense to show an evolved Han carrying more regret about what had happened with Ben and how this had spilt up him and Leia. This would have helped sell Kylo a lot better and would also potentially have allowed Han to have a deeper bond with Rey as discussion about his lost son with force abilities could naturally relate to her lost family and her force abilities. That would have sold Han as a surrogate father for Rey much better than just some banter about fixing the Falcon more akin to Okbi Wan with Luke and would have cut out the need for Maz to pop up to push the plot along and then vanish again.

With Luke I think they could have sold the idea that Ben's rebellion against him was a massive negative that helped the first Order to Rise giving Luke a reason to back off of existing training and look for someone new. They could had included some resentment at Luke from Leia as well.

 

I think it's less Han leaving Leia and more Leia wanting Han to move away. Han seemed to think Kylo was a lost soul, whereas Leia believed he could be saved.

 

I'm going to rewrite key parts of the film. First Kylo Ren is not going to be the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa. He is simply an unknown dark Force user who is employed by the First Order. Perhaps he is the rogue son of the Emperor eager to claim his throne back from the Republic. Ren probably joins the dark side after learning that he is actually the offspring of Emperor Palpatine and is enraged he was never told by Luke or others. He lashes out in rage over this untruth.

There is absolutely no Starkiller Base. A weapon on that scale doesn't make sense for the First Order to have been able to construct. Having both Luke and finding a way into Ovekiller Base. It confuses the plot. Pick one or the other Disney.

It could be that the First Order does learn the location of Luke Skywalker during his many years of exile in the unknown space. It's more of a race to find him and rescue him to return him to the Republic than destroy a large weapon.

Han Solo is a general for the New Republic or other type of high ranking official. He doesn't return to smuggling simply because his joined the dark side. Leia can also be of military background in the New Republic, but there is no resistance. Rey and Finn take off with the Millennium Falcon on Jakku, while Han is parked there with Chewbaca negotiating with locals over a matter for the New Republic. When the ship is taken to flee from the First Order, Han and Chewbacca have the New Republic fleet intercept it by force and take it aboard a Republic capital ship with the tractor beam.

I'm fine with Maz's castle, just not with the Resistance replacing the Republic in the film. The Republic comes to their rescue, not the rehashed Rebel Alliance. Kylo Ren takes Rey to another generic base for the First Order, not the Starkiller Base. They are able to use the details from Rey's mind and Imperial data to locate the location of Skywalker on an uncharted ocean planet. The Republic becomes aware of this information as well and a task force led by Han, Chewbaca, and others will lead a mission to find and locate Luke before the First Order can reach him.

The First Order arrives and lands. A massive labyrinth of traps and mazes has been constructed by Skywalker in his time of exile to protect himself. Several stormtroopers are killed by these elements in the search to find Luke. To make matters worse, the Republic task force led by Han shows up to interfere. An assault between fleets begins in the air and on the ground. The intervention eventually pits Rey against Kylo Ren again. Han is still killed by Kylo Ren. This action causes Luke to emerge from the shadows of his exile and nearly strike down Kylo Ren in combat. With Luke's interference, the entire First Order fleet is brought down. He is able to use the Force to destroy an entire new generation Star Destroyer. What remains of the First Order group retreats on what they can.

Han dies in Luke's arms. The Republic forces cheer at the return of Luke Skywalker to their ranks. All retreat back to Republic space and stage a memorial service for Han. Solo's body is recovered and buried in space or cremated. Luke and Leia reunite in a touching moment. Luke thanks Rey and Finn for helping to find and reunite him with the others. He asks Rey if she would like to continue on as his apprentice. She agrees and they begin to train with the New Republic.

 

More bickering and/or bantering.

At least two more occurrences of someone having a bad feeling about this.

Chewie and Leia have a consoling embrace for sure and most importantly, there isn't anything else I can't live with in the movie.

Make Snoke look way less like a White Orc and Voldermort mashup that got into a nasty accident.

Give Von Sydow a little more play.

Scatter a few lines of back story here and there.

If you aren't going to use Artoo then just have him be with Luke unless Luke's scenario rules that out or Rey's requires it.

I'd probably go with the old epic fleet battle to stop the First Order bombardment of the capital rather than a Death Star device.

I think the used Luke twice in the same sentence in the crawl, I'd clean that up.

Probably wouldn't unmask Kylo until the bridge.

 

Here's what I would do:
-Have Luke say something like "Welcome back, Rey" or "Hello Rey" which would be much better than them just staring at each other.
-Replace TR-8R with captain phasma.
-Explain Rey's past a little bit more and explain how she is so good with the force.
-Change Finn's occupation to like engineer or something so that he can deactivate the shields himself. This would prevent plasma from looking like a complete joke.
-Have Kylo Ren keep his mask on, and only take off when he confronts Han.
-Tone down Rey's mechanical and piloting skills a bit and have Han teach her a few things about the falcon.
-Explain how Maz has Anakins lightsaber.
-I know half of the movie goers would fall asleep, but take a minute or two to thoroughly explain the politics in this movie.
Those are thing that I can think of right now, but that is what I would do without completely redoing TFA.

 

Still hate the Rathtars. I would've had Han do some dodgy sheningans where he basically ends up getting both the rival gangs shooting at each other by mistake... they were sooo hokey and boring.

 

Every Star Wars movie has at least one Rathtar-esque sequence.

TPM - "There's always a bigger fish."
AOTC - The Nexu, Acklay, and.....the other one.
ROTS - Okay, I can't think of one for ROTS.
ANH - Trash compactor/Dianoga
TESB - Wampa, Dagobah swamp creature, giant space slug
ROTJ - Rancor, Sarlacc, Ewoks (before becoming allies)

All these scenes do little more, in my opinion, than take away precious time from an excellent story. It's like car chase scenes in any movie ever. *Yawn

Star Wars is full of those scenes too...pod racing, speeder chase with Zam, droid factory with Anakin & Padme, Obi-Wan chasing Grievous on Utapau, speeder bikes on Endor. I'd much rather see ground and space battles, sword fighting, wizard's battles...etc. more than these unnaturally forced scenes that are included to add what...suspense, I guess.

 

I'd have given Rey a decent coat...poor lass must have been freezing out there in the woods!!!