8 Things Missing From Star Wars: The Force Awakens

5. Room To Breathe

In all fairness, The Force Awakens has a lot on its agenda. There's a myriad of stories that need to be set up, being that chronologically the last events to transpire within the series were thirty years ago, and they all need to flow as best as possible - considering there is only two hours and twenty minutes of runtime allotted to J.J. That said, the film seemingly does move at a breakneck pace when it doesn't really need to. Instead of a superfluous action sequence involving (slightly ridiculous) squid-things and ineffectual space pirates that doesn't add anything to the plot, the time could have been better used later in the film. In that scenario there could have been a more natural, less-convenient sequence of Rey getting to grips with the Force before she miraculously figures out she can influence Daniel Craig's mind whilst held captive on Starkiller Base. Equally, there could have been more time spent between Han and Leia; as well-done as their reunion is (really, it did everything it needed to really well), there could have been additional meat to it (I'll come back to that point later). There's also not enough time spent with Maz Kanata, who feels too much like a plot signpost dressed up like a female, orange Yoda. The confluences of her personality don't mesh as well as they should - namely, it's hard to reconcile the part of her that's a salty, retired space pirate, and the side of her that's a benign Force-sensitive who's all for peace, love and putting people on the paths to their destiny. The reason we don't understand these two halves of her character is because we're not give any time with her to discover how she came to be on Takodana or who the hell she is to have acquired so much respect and importance.