TFA was problematic in that it was competent...but average and left too many questioned unanswered. What should have come across as plot hooks for the next story came across as plot holes. All it would have needed was a few extra scenes or lines where Rey used the Force, showing her as talented but untrained. Never mind it was almost a beat for beat reshoot of ANH.
I do wish, even in the novelization, they'd have explained HOW it was, Rey, was just so quick at picking up using the force, when it seemed NOTHING in her backround, indicated she was force sensitive.. The other plot hook/hole, i'd have liked to seen explained, was exactly why when Leia re-formed a rebellion (of sorts), we never heard of/saw the older characters, heroes OF THE resistance (such as lando, acbar, wedge etc), TILL they brought them in, in TROS.. (except for ackbar who was somewhat of an afterthought, and barely had any screen time till they killed him off in TLJ).
TLJ was problematic in that it ignored or actively dismissed much of what TFA setup. Then it compounded that error by dismissing some of the existing rules of the universe. The Holdo manuever, for example, might have looked great but it was a move that simply should not work in universe. It also made the bad guys look stupid and part of any competently told story is to try and hide the idiot stick
True.. Everything we saw of hyperspace, PRIOR TO of course Rogue one, showed one Did NOT DO IT in an atmpshpere, or close to one, due to the risk of dying.. Then we got TWO instances of a ship jumping to hyperspace (one in TFA and one in rogue one), and then the holdo maneuver..
the ridiculous mutiny and the fact Poe Dameron was a traitor who single handled wiped out the Resistance and there is much to dislike.
As a military brat, AND someone who served, he should have had a LOT MORE than merely a demotion, happened to him for that stunt with the bombers... Then his mutiny, should have seen him permanently stripped of rank... The fact, he's still leading in Ep 9, shows just how buggered up the writers are, in not even THINKING of proper military rules/structure etc..
ADD to that, his revealing TOP SECRET data, over a unsecured commline to Finn, with that hacker listening in), and that alone, should have been grounds for a charge of treason. ESPECIALLY Since THAT IS WHAT led to 2/3rds of the drop ships getting destroyed..
TLJ - I kept getting the feeling that there waas entire subplots cut out. Poes unreasonable distrust of Holdo makes much more sense if there had been a traitor storyline. That the fleet was being tracked because of the traitor.
I also think that chase stuff, would have been better, had there been a traitor in the midst of the fleet, one who actually DISABLED the hyperdrive (or better yet, destroyed it), rather than the maguffin of "they can track us"..