What they should have done is scrap TFA entirely, give us a movie which purpose isnt "lets just do the OT again", and then have a creative team behind the second movie that isnt going to piss all over everything the first movie set up.
TLJ is bad. It tries to be dark and serious, but all of its attempts at complexity ring hollow because it never lets its cast face any real consequences. Oh, except for killing off a bunch of faceless Rebels that literally nobody cares about. Despite its theme being "failure", they still end up winning at the end. Except for the climax, they consistently make TFO look like clowns. And every real "failure" is the result of something stupid like invalid parking, or two grown military adults acting like petty high schoolers.
But even that might be overlooked if anything Abrams "dick in a mystery box" movie got to resolve anything interesting it set up. "Who are Reys parents?" Dont care who, but they are clearly set up to not be "nobodies". "Why does Rey have visions when she touches the lightsaber?" Due to the lack of time skip, Kylo's promised training gets thrown out the window. Knights of Ren? Who?
Oh, also remember that Rey's Mary Sue problems come from an overlooked plot point. After she aced the dogfight in the beginning, she admits to Finn "I didnt know I could do that!" Her sudden force powers are the "awakening". But, like most things Abrams set up, arent addressed.
Luke Skywalker's arc is also unsatisfying. This is the last time we'll get to see Mark Hamill reprise his role, and "force hologram" is an incredibly underhwhelming power that doesnt deserve the gravitas its given.
And then theres Finn, whose character arc from VII is tweaked and recycled for the next movie. We already watched him "stop running away and think about others". It was boring watching him go through basically the same arc.
Rose wasnt awful, but she wasnt important either and sucked away valuable screen time from literally everyone else who needed it more.
And then there's Holdo, who the movie cant decide is a bitchy plot device or sympathetic leader. And I feel absolutely nothing for her the entire film.
The movie does almost nothing right, because its too afraid to make its themes mean anything, and doesnt want to respect the setup before it.
Yikes ---
Don't like it? Don't watch it. It's that simple Capcom Defense Force