10 Simple Fixes That Would Have Made Star Wars: The Force Awakens Perfect

8. Use Starkiller Base To Better Set Up Hux And Kylo

Star Wars The Force Awakens Captain Phasma
Lucasfilm

There’s nothing wrong with having a new Death Star in The Force Awakens. It’s like poetry, it rhymes and all that. And Starkiller base - an actual planet that harvests the power of a star - is a great expansion of that idea. It’s also really cool to see the political capital be destroyed (although why they didn’t make it Coruscant is beyond me).

The problem is that it comes too late in the film to be a sustained threat. The Death Stars are the driving force of their respective films, but here there’s something almost lackadaisical about Starkiller - Han even dismisses it as a nothing threat. It in an way feels like it was mainly there out of obligation to formula.

If you’re going to have it in, double-down on it. Make that what Hux is going for, but Kylo is obsessed with Skywalker, furthering their bickering and competition. That'd develop the villains a little bit and set up their ultimate goal - wipe of the Resistance - earlier.

Contributor
Contributor

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.