So TFA starts off real strong, but when Han and Chewie enter the picture, it starts to lose steam. By the time they reach Starkiller Base it’s like the writers have just given up. What can be done about this? How do we improve the second half of the film (and if possible distance it from ANH)?
It’d be very hard, but if you rework the trilogy to have no Palpatine, you could try and move Starkiller to be the climatic third film’s setting instead of Exogal. This will shorten the runtime drastically, but it’s possible. Maybe have part of Luke’s exile to be trying to figure out a way to remotely destroy Starkiller (“the ability to destroy planets is insignificant compared to the power of the Force”). Maybe combine the lightspeed ramming scene with Luke, demonstrating that not only is it 1 in a million, only a Jedi could do it…which would make a perfect circle with the original Death Star.