(Long Post Warning)

I wanted to post my thoughts about TLJ here to hopefully give some ideas to editors, as I anxiously await your revised cuts! These are my issues with the movie; it really felt like Rian Johnson had utter contempt for every single established Star Wars trope. I am sure not everyone will agree with me on some of these, and probably the scope of some are too large to change, but perhaps there are some things that could still be done:

Rey’s parentage is a big one. To be dismissed out of hand after leading audiences to believe that this would be one of the most critical aspects of the trilogy, and with SW having established the relationship between force sensitivity and bloodlines, this was a terrible moment in the movie. I can only hope Kylo was lying or mistaken…
You CANNOT set up a character like Snoke without more explanation about who and what he is. Sorry, but you can’t, based on the literary archetype he represents, the path had already been set, the wheels are in motion. Someone as powerful or MORE powerful than the literal EMPEROR has been in hiding, watching and waiting, as events have played out for decades or or centuries or millennia? This is beyond intriguing! Rian Johnson claimed audiences knew nothing about Emperor Palpatine before the Original Trilogy. This is true, but there were not SEVEN movies in the SW universe that came before the OT when it was released to set up the films!
One of the things that bugged me the most was how the awesome and heroic character of Poe Dameron was reduced to an incompetent fool, sacrificing the Resistance’s entire bomber fleet for apparently no reason that had any impact on the story whatsoever, blabbing over unsecured communications about the evacuation to the planet, making him responsible for untold Resistance deaths. He gets demoted, dressed down, kept in the dark, and finally to add injury to insult, stunned unconscious by the person he most respects. I cannot say how disappointed I was in what Rian did to Poe’s character.
Porgs. Okay, I get it, they are the new Ewoks (one of the few generally accepted poor choices made in the Original Trilogy) and meant to appeal to children. But I could have used at least one or two less scenes with them. Compared to the other issues covered in this post, they are a nitpick.
The casino scene. It was pointless and stalled the plot. The whole thing could have been chopped out. A captured imperial droid or some little-known on-ship hacker could have been tracked down to sneak onto the imperial ship. This actually would have been a better use for the nerdy, unassuming Rose character. Rian complained that taking time to reveal Snoke’s backstory would have ground the pacing to a halt, but the time in the casino did the same thing and added nothing to the story.
Complete disregard of Vader as a character after he had already been set up in TFA as a major influencer and inspiration to Kylo. After a few mean words from Snoke, Kylo smashes his helmet to pieces, symbolically smashing his obsessed Vader-like aspirations and everything that had been set up in the previous movie. Trying to delete Vader from a Skywalker-saga SW movie is like trying to delete Hitler from a WWII documentary. Can’t you wait until you get you start your own non-Skywalker SW trilogy, Rian?
General Hux was set up, almost literally, as a young ascendant Hitler in TFA. Now he is the butt of silly tone-deaf jokes? I thought Kathleen Kennedy was supposed to be supervising Rian?
Snoke’s comment about the Dark in Rey and the Light rising to meet it. This is an attempt to muddy the water and make things “grey”. Sorry, but SW is not (the amazing) Game of Thrones where every character is some shade of grey. SW, like Lord of the Rings before it, is more classically based in clearly defined good vs. evil, black and white, with central characters in conflict between the two sides but not symbolizing the embodiment of both simultaneously and equally, and not in a permanent state of vacillating between both sides.
As already mentioned by Mark Hamill, Rian did not do justice to Luke’s character. His wallowing self-pity was reminiscent of Anakin in Episodes II and III, which I think most fans can agree, is not a memory that should be dredged up. And his defeatism through most of the film was neither Jedi-like nor Luke-like.
Rey: gutsy move putting a female in the lead role of a SW film! But the right one. Great choice, she is amazing as a character and Daisy is a fantastic actor. Leia: In charge of the Reistance. Of course she is! Brilliant. Captain Phasma: Gwendolyn Christie is a genuine badass. Super-cool to not just have a female storm trooper, but to have the ULTIMATE storm trooper be female. Maz: Holy shit a female Yoda? Awesome! Rose: Great character if not the best actress. Very cool to add more ethnic diversity and also that she is not “gorgeous” by societal standards. Female fighter squadron leader at the film’s beginning: Of course. There should be women piloting fighters and in leadership roles. Female self-sacrificing bomber (Rose’s sister): Well done! Very emotional and heroic moment for a female Resistance fighter. Blonde Resistance Intern girl who helps Po: Sure, why not. Big-nosed Resistance Officer lady who, comments on things: Okay… Purple-haired kindergarten teacher who takes over command of Resistance when Leia is unconscious: You know what, sorry, sorry, I am profoundly sorry, but one female too many. This is a war movie, not “Sisterhood of the Traveling Resistance”. Am I a sexist is to think a WAR movie should have at least a few more main characters of the male gender? If you are trying to be diverse and inclusive, why not add some trans characters or gender-switching aliens or a gay relationship minor plot line, all of which I think could have been good choices.
Kylo, Yoda, and Luke all talked about destroying the past. I didn’t really mind this at all until I realized the second, much deeper meaning of this dialog was that Rian Johnson was ACTUALLY COMMENTING ABOUT THE PAST STAR WARS MOVIES THEMSELVES WITHIN THE MOVIE HE WAS COMMISSIONED TO DIRECT! He was literally talking about destroying all the Star Wars tropes that came before HIS movie.
In the OT, it was clear what the Empire represented and what the Rebellion represented. As things stand after Episodes VII and VIII… what the extant Republic, Resistance, and First Order represent and how they evolved into their current states, is far less clear, and therefore less emotionally involving.

The movie almost feels like Rian Johnson hates J.J. Abrams. “Oh you created Poe to be a hero, you think Snoke should be an important character, you want Rey’s bloodlines to be important, you probably wanted Luke to be a more heroic character, you wanted Vader’s presence to be felt through his inspiration of Kylo? Well I am going to kill the past because this is MY movie! Oh… And I bet you thought the Knights of Ren was a cool idea too. Well, fuck you about that too.”

I do think there is a good Star Wars movie in there somewhere utilizing TLJ footage as a rough cut.