My only problem with Leia’s scenes is the editing and position of the resistance base in relation to the stakes of the film.
In the original film (that this one is so clearly stealing from) Leia has by necessity led the Empire to the Rebels, who at that point are the only obstacle to Empire having secured dominance over the galaxy. If the Death Star blows that up it’s won.
The set up in these movies is there are two power blocks. The former Empire now First Order and the New Republic. They seem to be in a cold war situation. In this film the place to get that sense of peril would have been on the Republic capital which might as well been Coruscant in the same way that Rey might as well have been raised on Tatooine. So what we should have seen is a Resistance base insurgent within First Order territory be the test target and Leia on the Republic world having already failed to get the bureaucrats to launch a retaliatory strike risk open war with the First Order by taking her followers in the fleet to attack the base.
That way when the capital is destroyed there is a sense of connection to the place. I barely understood what the place was. In my after viewing report I thought it was Coruscant because it looked like the whole planet was one big city but I needed someone there to tell me.
Also done that way a small section of the Republic fleet survived and became the new resistance to the rise of the First Order.
There was a scene that was cut in which Leia sends an envoy to the senate on Hosnian Prime that likely would have A.) clarified that it wasn’t Coruscant, and B.) made the planet’s destruction resonate more. It looks like it was shot because there are some stills from it floating around in some of the companion books. I hope it’s included on the Blu-ray, I’d like to see it in a fan edit down the road. Personally, I think striking out at the seat of government immediately rather than testing Starkiller on another target first is useful for characterizing the First Order. These aren’t the banal pencil-pushers of the old Empire, they’re unhinged ideologues trying to make the biggest splash possible. That’s not to say I don’t like your suggestion, I think that would’ve worked well too. I just think the version in the film succeeds at illustrating a certain dynamic.
As for Leia’s face. Honestly the level of overlapping sexism and ageism in nerd circles is a bloody disgrace. It makes me feel ashamed to own small plastic dolls in the shape of aliens and robots it really does.
