Coming back to the final act of this film with over six months of distance, I am definitely feeling that the complexity in the Starkiller sequence does it a disservice. Right now the sequence is:
Han dies
Chewie detonates the charges
Leia sad
Lightsaber fights
Poe’s failed run
Ackbar and the 2 minute countdown
more lightsabers
weapon fires
Oscillator explodes
lightsabers stopped by chasm
Hosnian destruction
Leia sad again
Rey finds Finn
Hux talks to Snoke
Chewie and the Falcon
It’s just too complicated, the intercutting too fast for anything to land. In light of this, I definitely see the appeal of reverting the Starkiller sequence back to something more akin to Restructured 3.0.
I would remove the concept of the weapon recharging though, since I think it’s worth reassessing the idea that Poe and the pilots shouldn’t be taking ‘revenge’ on the Starkiller for the Hosnian destruction. It actually makes a lot of sense for Poe to be continuing the attack on Starkiller even after the mission has failed, since it is a straight line from that to TLJ’s “You start an attack, you follow it through.” A lot of the reason for this recharging plot point was due to considerations made before the release of TLJ, and I bet people would feel differently about this if it were being considered today. Furthermore, in my version Rey is being clearly driven towards a darker place with the destruction of her friends, and placing the Hosnian destruction alongside Han’s death mirrors this character movement for Poe.
So here’s a rough idea of a new sequence set to the Hosnian destruction music:
Han dies (cue Hosnian destruction music)
Han falls off bridge, weapon rumbling and possible exterior shot of weapon heating up
Chewie immediately detonates the charges where he stands, engulfing the wall in fire
Ackbar warns that the Oscillator is still functional, the Resistance officer says only “Admiral…”
First Order techs give Hux manual control, he orders the weapon to fire
Weapon fires, Poe and pilots react
Hosnian destruction
Leia reacts
Exterior of Oscillator, Finn and Rey running to the Falcon