It looks like I will be the first person with the dissenting opinion. I found the movie to be far too predictable with far too many nasty plot holes and extreme coincidences.
Things that were way too predictable:
I called the Rey being a force user thing after the very first fight defending herself from the dirtbags in the village. The way she handled her staff in combat translates perfectly to lightsaber usage, and of course far be it from Star Wars to waste a good coincidence.
The instant Han called out to Kylo on the bridge, I immediately thought to myself “my what a lovely shaft of death this bridge is hovering over, perfect for removing the most popular character in the movie, who’s plot armor is far too strong to be defeated by anything other than his own son.”
As soon as the plot turned to destroying Starkiller base, rather than completing the map puzzle, I knew Luke wouldn’t be showing his face much/at all. I was actually guessing that they just brought him in as a trick to throw fans off the trail and that he wouldn’t actually show up until the next movie. I was sooooo close to being 100% right on this one…
Speaking of the map puzzle…
Things I just plain didn’t like:
Any society that has the technology to build a telescope can map out a layout of their galaxy pretty accurately. Do you mean to tell me that nobody could take a few dozen stars from BB-8’s map and extrapolate the map’s location in the galaxy? I call shenanigans.
How many times did the Millennium Falcon crash? How does she still fly? I call shenanigans.
Why does the galaxy need a “resistance” to fight the First Order? Is the Republic just turning a blind eye to the events of the galaxy? Do they not remember what happened a mere 50 years ago? I call shenanigans.
Kylo Ren force pushed the crap out of Rey and threw her into a tree, he force choked people, froze blaster bolts in midair, etc… Why not do that again once he realized she was more than a match for him in melee dueling? I call shenanigans.
Captain Phasma is a pretty big pushover for being in charge of the galaxy’s most elite generation of Stormtroopers. She knew Finn and Han didn’t know how to deactivate the shield, therefore she should have known they couldn’t have carried out their death threats. I call shenanigans.
Starkiller base shot a dozen planets all within visual range of the whatchamacallit planet where they got Luke’s lightsaber, and yet didn’t attempt to destroy that planet. Also, just the fact that there were a dozen planets within visual range of that planet in the first place. I call shenanigans.
R2 magically decided to wake up and the end of the movie and magically had the other 90% of the puzzle. There was no reason or stimulus shown to convince him to wake up. I call shenanigans.
Things that bothered me but were fine:
Poe magically reappearing at the resistance base.
Chewie being a baby after getting shot.
Another super evil death machine destroyed in the first attempt.
Things I liked:
comedy?
special effects?
I really really really wanted to like this movie, but I couldn’t seem to get past the massive ridiculousness in the aforementioned parts of the plot. Of course I really shouldn’t complain since the previous 6 movies have quite a lot of similar plot holes. Maybe I’m just being overly analytical.
TL;DR:
WTB more character development and less pew pew and silly plot holes.