To be honest, despite my criticisms of certain story decisions, I also felt the movie was better on my second viewing. It is still fast but not as jarringly fast as it felt the first time around.
I know what you mean. I found it was a lot less frenetic when I knew where it was going. I also picked up on dialogue that justified a couple things that felt like they came out of nowhere the first time.
Yeah, exactly. One example of this I recall is how in one scene Kylo tells some officers to alert local troops near Pasana to look for the gang, then it immediately cuts to a Stormtrooper telling the gang to freeze. But in an earlier scene Poe tells everyone to keep their head down because big gatherings tend to have First Order patrols. First viewing it felt like whiplash, and I can it is, but it didn’t feel as jarring the second time around partly because I picked up on that line.