Which is a shame, because I really wanted to love it.
The story itself is stunted and shoots in all directions, sprouting unconvincing side plots when is should supply clever solutions. And what should be a clever solution feels like a cheat.
Let's start with some nitpicks:
Destroying Snoke's ship by ramming into it with the hyper drive ? That is possible now ? Why didn't the rebels just ram the Death Star with 20 x-wings jumping into hyper space ?
After Holdo smashed off a third of Snoke's ship, all the stormtroopers in the bay were dead, but Finn and Rose were unharmed. It just felt way too easy.
Why did Admiral Holdo dress like an Art teacher ? I mean Leia is a princess but no one else should get a pass.
Disney's politics were so on the nose. The female empowerement thing was all over the place, with Holdo and Leia constantly lecturing Poe Demaron about his impulsive heroism, and that what really matters is surviving. I sort of expected one of them to tug their braid and say "The oak fights the wind and breaks, the willow bends and survives."
BB8's heroics kind of broke my suspense of disbelief. Enough with the stupid droid easily beating trained storm troopers.
What's with the crystal fox things leading them out of danger ? Is this the Lord of the Rings now ?
The whole bit with Yoda and the burning of the Jedi writings. Gah. First we never got to explore what was in those writings, but we are told by Yoda that they are ancient and sort of obsolete. So really no big deal if Luke burns them. All that was missing was Yoda saying the ancient Jedi who wrote those texts were old white men, so what good could they possibly teach Rey anyway. Besides, they were probably slave owners too.
I find it quite ironic that a movie that they would pump "out with the old, in with the new" in a movie that tries to draw so much from the originals. The ending battle obviously tried to borrow from the battle of Hoth.The Rey-Kylo story sort of worked. But offing Snoke so fast and so easily was a let down. Having a conflicted Kylo Ren as the head of the First Order doesn't feel right, or especially menacing. Kylo Ren is still the best part of the series.
Luke's death felt random and forced.