I'm going to try not to rehash things you guys have already talked about, and just add my 2 cents. Overall, I really enjoyed it. I'm glad I skipped all the commercials, trailers, articles and speculation because I came in with almost no preconceived notions outside of any previous Star Wars knowledge, and I was immersed. I didn't know who or what was coming, and there were a few parts I was on the edge of my seat because I didn't know what they were going to do. Some decisions felt very much in line with the OT, other stuff was new twists. Yoda showing up was one of my favorite surprises, especially because his Force ghost was just there to call Luke on his bull. ("I've got a torch! I'm...gonna do it!...Gonna..do...it...!" "Humph. The balls you still do not have, Skywalker. Here to Thor this shit, I am." BOOM!)
I haven't seen as much fanboy bellyaching as you guys, so I was (ever so slightly) surprised to hear there was complaints. I honestly don't give it much thought since the OT has the good fortune to appear before the Internet Age and I think had it not, people would have ripped the retcons in ESB and RotJ to pieces. But one of the funniest criticisms I saw was one guy complaining about the emphasis on Leia because the OT "was about Luke Skywalker". Dude, have you watched the OT? I could agree with that statement about ANH, but ESB and RotJ were definitely ensemble pieces. Luke's story line stood out because the concept of a Jedi and the Force was new and shiny, but there was a hell of a lot more going on than just his story. And speaking of Leia, I did get misty-eyed a few times, knowing what real life has left us with., especially when R2 was chewing Luke out* and he pulls up the footage of her original call to Obi-wan for help. They really set up Leia to be the lynch-pin of the final movie, and I'm so sad that can't be the case.
It's funny Gas just posted the photo above, because I was going to mention one of the hardest things for me to watch because it was so uncomfortable. Not just because it looks like they CG'd Adam Drivers tiny, round head on a much larger body, and probably not creating the Marvel Moment** they were hoping for, but because it became that awful moment in Force-chat Roulette where some guy thinks it's totally okay to ambush you with his nudity and refuses to stop even when you flat-out tell him you're uncomfortable. Weinsteins exist even in a galaxy far, far away.
But best of all, I love that after all the moaning and temper-tantrums that TFA and Rogue One were putting too many women and too much diversity into Star Wars, Disney's response, "Oh, sorry, what did you say? MORE WOMEN! MORE DIVERSITY! YOUR LEADERS? WOMEN! YOUR FORCE USERS? WOMEN! YOUR BOBA FETT? WOMAN! DROPPING BOMBS? WOMEN! RAMMING SHIPS? WOMEN! EVIL STAFF? WOMEN! ONE WOMAN GETS HURT? BRING IN ANOTHER WOMAN! ALL THE WOMEN!!!!" Even Poe was like, "...that was not what I expected." Woo!
*I just noticed Luke gets yelled at a lot in this film. Probably to make up for the whining in ANH.
**You know what I mean. The moment in the recent Marvels films where the hero is all "Helllloooooooo, audience. Oops, I'm missing a shirt. Want to see that I went to the gym?"