I want to preface these points with this: I like star wars, and I really enjoy the universe. Even if I have a lot of problems with TLJ, or Attack of the Clones, or other star wars shows/movies, I still genuinely enjoy them in spite of their flaws. Even a bad star wars movie tends to be fun, in most cases. Alrighty...
The Good:
I genuinely like the Force connection between Rey and Kylo. The communication and ability to manipulate/see objects wherever the other is is really cool. This is, I think, Johnson's best contribution to the universe.
Puppet Yoda Force ghost coming to see Luke, I love it. My favorite scene in the movie, even if I have a liiitle bit of a lore problem with Luke trying to burn a sacred temple with sacred texts and-- wait, this is the Good section...see below.
I also genuinely liked how Luke died. I think him Force projecting himself across the galaxy is one of the single most impressive usages of the Force I have ever seen, without going too far into the realm of cheesyness like pulling a star destroyer out of the sky (for example).
Kylo Ren. Adam Driver continues to be one of the best elements of the sequel trilogy, and we do not deserve him. I enjoyed everything about his arc here.
Visually a very stunning film, and much of the choreography and design was excellent and fun to watch. The lightspeed ram in particular was breathtaking in theaters, and the fallout of the impact on the ship while Kylo and Rey are within it, and it begins to fall apart around them, was gorgeous.
The Meh:
The lightspeed ram was fine, didn't bother me.
The bombing run at the beginning doesn't make any sense but I also don't care, it's Star Wars.
Luke was fine, Luke didn't bother me but overall I didn't love it (except the lightsaber toss which was...lol). His death was moving and appropriate, I thought (see above). Though I was also not a fan of his complete disregard for the sacred jedi temple and texts when he went to burn them. It was also odd when yoda showed a complete disregard for them as well. I get it, the theme of the movie is "let the past die, let it go". And within the theme of the movie that makes sense. Admittedly I do also think there is some quality to the idea that Yoda has transcended and no longer holds much credence for physical and religious idols such as "sacred jedi texts". But like other things in TLJ I think this concept is slightly undercooked, and could have spent more time in the writing room.
Rose is fine, I don't have any problems with her. Unfortunately she's tied into the Canto Bight issues, which are not her fault as a character. She was robbed in the sequel.
Poe was incredibly luke(heh)warm this entire film. His arc was not interesting, and more often than not it was frustrating to watch. We also go to see almost nothing about what made his character unique in the first place, that he was an ace pilot. We got a taste at the beginning, he spent the rest of the movie on the main ship just getting in the way. All in all Poe and Finn were the two biggest misses as far as character arcs go in this one, and it feels like they were just undercooked in the writing room.
The Bad:
Oh boy! Canto Bight is probably the most boring sequence in Star Wars since 90% of Attack of the Clones (but even that gave us the Clone Wars series). It also completely throws off the flow and pacing of the movie. TLJ is leagues, LEAGUES better if you cut out 100% of Canto Bight and Rose and Finn come back for Crait and you just assume as an audience that they got what they needed done. Which would not be good writing if that's how it was actually handled, which goes to show how poor Canto Bight as a sequence truly is: that the alternative is still bad. This ties into my next point about poorly written and timed humor, that Johnson probably just wanted to have some wacky star wars fun with it. Which is...fine, star wars has always been weird, fun, and humorous after all. But I felt as though the type of humor and wacky star wars adventure he was going for with Canto Bight missed the mark. ALSO, what the fuck were they thinking casting Justin Theroux as the Master Codebreaker only to NOT USE HIM? He's a fantastic actor, what a miss. And there was a second master codebreaker chillin' in the holding cells? Alright. Undercooked, underwritten, overproduced sequence was not great.
Finn was robbed. Uh...see above.
Everything Holdo should have been Leia, including the lightspeed ram and death. Everything. Holdo is a great example of a newly added character that an existing character can already fill the role of, and is therefore just...extra, and should be cut. Which is a damn shame because I love Laura Dern, and she of course did great with what she had.
Lots of poorly timed humor, particularly the opening scene prank call. Very bad.
Do we even have to talk about how poorly Phasma and Finn's encounter was handled? (There is some deleted content that improves this scene, but...it was cut). It was basically just "oh yeah, we have Phasma, don't we?...". The only part of Finn's character arc that had real consequence, and called back to the previous film, and even then it was poorly executed.
Overall felt very disjointed and is not a great sequel. The argument can be made it is a better standalone film, but that's not what it is supposed to be. And even then a lot of the problems I have with the movie (such as structure, writing choices, etc) do not go away when TLJ is looked at as a standalone film...it just kind of makes it feel worse, in fact.
Personal Nitpicks:
Huuuuuugely disappointing lack of Force power usage during the throne room fight with Snoke's guard. Where were the Force powers, we just lighsabin' now?? (This is a nitpick I have with a lot of SW films, not just TLJ, but this scene was the PERFECT place for some great Force power spectacle > lightsaber spectacle).
Massive missed opportunity to go further into grey jedi ideologies with Luke and Rey. The trailer really made me think we were going to get this, with Luke's line of "there's so much more...".