I don’t see why people are constantly complaining about TLJ like “it breaks what TFA set up!” or some such. That’s what I liked about it—the plot twists.
You think Snoke is going to be the next Palpatine (ie. big bad who dies at the end of the third film), but he’s not.
You think Luke is going to mentor Rey but he doesn’t.
You think Leia is dead but she’s not.
You think someone or something on the Light Side is connecting Rey and Ren, but it’s Snoke, but it’s again not really.
You think Finn is going to destroy the tracker but he doesn’t and gets caught. You think there’s no way out except then BB-8 shows up in a chicken walker.
You think Poe is going to save the cruiser but he doesn’t.
You think it’s the Vice Admiral coming through the door but it isn’t.
You think Luke is on the planet fighting Ren but he’s not.
You think Ren is going to kill Rey but he doesn’t—he does exactly what Vader wanted to do in ESB but couldn’t.
It’s the best thing about the film. It keeps throwing curve balls.
Oh, and that business about Rey’s family being nobodies from nowheresville, Ren told her that. There is no guarantee that he was not lying. But even if he wasn’t, I like the idea that not the whole of the The Force hinges directly on descendants of the House of Skywalker (as many people speculated that she was a daughter of Luke or Leia).
The one real negative of the film is… Yoda. They got the Yoda voice actor from The Clone Wars (whom I hate), and used either another Creepy Puppet Yoda or a CGI adaption of it.
I have no problem with Snoke not being Palpatine, but he threw out the context and motivations with Snoke. The New Republic magically disappeared, with the FO instantly controlling the galaxy, which seems odd when it took the Rebel Alliance five yours to take control after the battle of Endor. It’s now just Empire vs rebels again, only with Darth Vader Light at the helm, who’s had no further training, and is now just waiting to be beat again by Rey. There’s no tension there. Rey’s won every fight she was in. She’s practically a Jedi Knight after three basic lessons. I guess the tension should come from the fact there are only a handful of rebels left, but that just makes it seem ridiculous to me. The FO have won. Kudos to them. TLJ so blatantly disregards many conventions for shock value, and it seems RJ forgot his movie is supposed to be part of a trilogy and saga. You don’t create a trilogy and saga by cutting all ties with the past, and having no open story threads for the future. There’s literally nothing to look forward to, except another big space or ground battle between the FO and the probably completely revived rebellion, and watch Rey whoop Kylo’s behind again. Been there, done that.