And since I read the screenplay I thought I would give my impressions.
First, I was struck at some of the obvious reuse of dialog from the OT. I was also struck at how much this and the final TROS parallel each other. I can see now why they still have credit for the story.
Second. I hate the ending. Rey and Kylo really don’t have a fair battle. Kylo is way over powered. I do like the epilogue. I like seeing the training start right away. I like how they had an award ceremony like in ANH. That would have been the perfect ending.
Third, this reads like a really rough draft of TROS. I see all the same events, but the order and location are changed. And Palpatine is added. Like TFA is based on the Lucas treatment for VII, TROS is based on this script.
I found Mortis to be a waste in this. Moving it to a different planet made sense. Creating a Sith planet with Palpatine at the center feel more powerful. More epic. It raises the stakes. I like how in TROS the First Order hasn’t solidified their hold where here more time has passed. I do like how we see the more evil side to the First Order here, but enough is implied in the ST that it isn’t really needed. And I didn’t see much to the Stormtrooper rebellion. It was just one group with the rest of the surface battle being the locals. Other reviews make it sound like a grand and widespread stormtooper rebellion and it really isn’t. And what they ended up with in TROS has some nice echoes of this without letting it distract.
And I really don’t like a Sith teacher. That really goes against the rule of two. I just really have problems with Kylo in this script. As the last Skywalker, he really deserved better. I like that they flopped some of the scenes in for TROS. It really is clear that they continued development on the story rather than throw it out. I see so much of where TROS ended up in this. It is clearly the source.
Overall I think it is a great script. Worthy of being a early draft of a Star Wars movie. But in the end I don’t think it is up to being a shooting script.