I think they went much more interesting places than VII, did much more interesting things with the force. Doing much more original things with the plot.
On the other hand, the movie felt long at several points. Which...probably actually indicates pacing problems moreso than length (it was within 20 minutes of Episode VII, so not a significant length difference). Honestly, as much as I wanted to like this part of the movie, I feel like most of the Finn/Rose subplot was not very good. Her crashing into him to stop his suicide run was great, but almost everything else before that, it just felt like they wanted some action clips in between Jedi training and Fin/Rose was their choice of filler.
Yeah. I wanted to like Finn/Rose more than I did too. I like it from the moment they're aboard the ship though, personally. ---
