10 Simple Fixes That Would Have Made Star Wars: The Force Awakens Perfect
7. Fix The Pacing At The End Of The Second Act
OK, this is my biggest problem with the film and where, for about ten minutes it begins to really mess up.
Here’s the situation: at Maz’s castle, Finn suddenly decides he wants to run away. Rey calls him a coward, then gets a vision and decides to run away herself. Then all of a sudden the First Order has a Death Star and Finn’s back, then Kylo Ren turns up and then they’re at the Resistance base and then they’re being targeted by Starkiller Base and... there's just no coherence. Things get back to normal for the final act, but there’s some very obvious rushed editing in how Finn acts and how Maz just disappears.
Fixing this without bloating the film would be hard, but shifting some of the events earlier/later - which having Poe back and Starkiller established sooner would make easier - would make things a bit more cohesive. A few calm, non-plot essential character beats interspersed within there would be nice too, keeping the pace from being so breakneck and all too convenient.