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Unusual colours are very striking in visual media. Unfortunately roleplaying games are not very visual and often rely on the GM describing things verbally. But you can still paint a picture with a description, and shouldn't overlook the opportunity to emphasise interesting or odd colours.
You strike an unknown creature with a sword and green blood spurts out! The sky has an orange hue. The plants here have blue leaves.
But probably don't do all of these things at once. One bizarre colour per scene is plenty to establish an other-worldly effect or indicate something significant.
Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)
Ooooo. Now that's a neat twist on this just being a salt planet. It's more like it's a layer of salt dust over everything rather than just being only salt, which feels much more reasonable. It'd also allow for weather to be something other than just "windy". I feel that if there was only wind, all of this top-layer salt would eventually be picked up and blown into drifts along the cliff walls.
Walking out in front of the defensive line is certainly a choice decision. I get that it shows off Caluan more, but he's never given me "important character" vibes beyond the comic traits he's got. Maybe it's to show off the ground? It'd be easy enough to have a shot of Caluan looking out from one of these towers, so it'd have to be the scenery thing to show how weird the planet is. Though now I wonder how everyone got to the trenches without messing up the salt.
As for the potential decoy planets and/or fortresses? Those wouldn't have been any good anyway. Decoys are only useful as a long-term diversion, and that's hard to pull off during a chase. They're also only useful if people know that they're available to use as decoys. If you aren't going to tell anyone on your side about them, you might as well stick with just spreading rumors of other bases and keep all the actual resources at the real base.
Transcript
Finn: Do we have troops who can lay down covering fire?
GM: Sure.
Finn: Deploy them. We’ll go out in the skimmers to destroy the cannon.
Poe: Yeah!
Finn: I’m not sure I like it when you agree with me.
Poe: But you’re so cool!
GM: Okay. Soldiers man barbicans with heavy weapons.
GM: Others take position in trenches guarding the blast door.
Poe: They’d be dug into a layer of rhodochrosite under the salt.
GM: Caluan Ematt strides out to survey the situation.
Poe: His boot scuffs should leave bright red footprints.
[SFX]: crunch crunch {the salt crust breaks under Ematt’s boots, revealing a deep red mineral beneath}
Caluan Ematt: I had two dozen fake fortresses set up around Crait as decoys.
Rose: That sounds useful.
Caluan Ematt: I also had thirty fake planets set up to throw them off the trail, but no, you had to lead them straight here.
Rose: You’re sure we’re on the right one?