8 Things Missing From Star Wars: The Force Awakens

7. An Arc For Poe Dameron

As, frankly, freakin' awesome as Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac, on absolute form) is, he doesn't get much to do apart from... be the best there is at what he does. That element does serve its purpose, of course - it allows for a lot of fist-pumping moments. But much like Jurassic World's Owen Grady, they would mean so much more if they were backed up with some emotional heft to them. There are certainly one or two missed opportunities to give Oscar Isaac more to do; an actor of his caliber can be trusted with any amount of deep material you decide to throw at him, which is probably one of the reasons he gets made to play out a torture scene. Yet Dameron doesn't even show any signs of PTSD after being tortured by Kylo Ren and the First Order (nor does Leia in the original, for that matter... there are those parallels again). Whilst most other conflicts within the film are largely external and played out between characters, Dameron's conflict could have been comprised of inner turmoil - the ace fighter pilot who is fully shellshocked and now unsure of his abilities after being captured, tortured and almost killed in a TIE Fighter crash. The daring air raid rescue of Han, Chewie and Finn at Maz Kanata's castle could have shown Dameron as being shaky behind the wheel rather than standardly being the same old "one-hell-of-a-pilot!" as ever. The resolution to the arc could have come as he decides to conquer his failings and climb back in his X-Wing for the final battle, with his victory playing out as it stands in the film. That'd have been slightly more interesting to watch, I think; for once see these intergalactic battles have an effect on its participants other than straight death.