I seem to be in the minority in liking this film. I felt that it had a lot to add to the previous movies and didn’t detract from any of them. So many of the critic reviews on RT were full of this film rewriting and retconning TLJ and I didn’t find a single instance of that.

This movie was very much an adventure. In fact the whole saga is very much a series of adventures. Star Wars is not heavy on themes, except in the end Good wins over Evil. But I felt that the theme for this film was the evil in your family does not define you. Kylo spent 2 1/2 films focused on Darth Vader over his parents or his other ancestors. Palpatine tried to use that family link to pull in Rey. But now, knowing the truth about her parents (the full truth that they went into hiding and obscurity to protect her), she drew on that. In the end she honored their abandonment of the Palpatine name by adopting Skywalker, the family name of her two masters. I think that the family part is echoed by family in other sub-plots in the film. Lando’s was apparently cut, but hints of it remain (the timing for the leaked version isn’t compatible with Rey’s background). Even Poe’s story connect with his past (what he did and who he knew and that even his own personal past as a spice runner didn’t define him as Finn’s background as a stormtrooper didn’t define him and Rey’s as a scavenger didn’t define her). So I think there are plenty of themes beyond the typical good vs. evil that Star Wars focus’s on to give the movie meat. The trilogy has seemed to stick to that idea that you are not stuck with what you used to do and you can change your destiny. All three films have touched on that in different ways.