Well, I’ve seen it a second time as well now, and like many others here I really, really liked it a lot more this time around. All my unrealistic expectation on the first viewing definitely distorted my enjoyment of the film. My overall opinion of the film hasn’t really changed that much though, but I was able to enjoy it a lot more. I also feel that a lot of the complaints that have been thrown about regarding the lack of a detailed backstory is kind of pointless. There actually is an acceptable amount of explanations, or at least pretty clear hints, and the OT didn’t really have that much more to begin with. But we’ve know those films for decades so we’re accustomed to knowing all the extra-information that have been made up about it. I’m sure people back in 1977 had no clue how the politics of it all worked. This is the first time in 30 years that there’s been a film in this era/style, and not knowing the backstory is suddenly somewhat jarring, but I wouldn’t fault the actual cinematic experience for it. I think we need this trilogy to be finished before we can start nitpicking the politics of it. What’s important now is the overall narrative, and although I still think the second have is a bit too derivative, I think it works really well. I enjoyed the first half with practically no complains this time around, and the second half was only mildly disgruntling this time. Now that I was aware of it, I could enjoy the action, humour, characterization, etc. a lot more.
However, here are some of my new observations;
First of all, to all you cynics who’s been whining about Poe saying “my job is done” at the end of the film, I checked and he did say "our job is done." So calm down.
Sydow’s character is described in the opening scroll as an “old ally,” and in his conversation with Poe he insisted on referring to General Leia as “royal.” This doesn’t really explain who he is, but it hint towards certain answers. He also talks about the importance of the Jedi and a “balance” in the Force.
While at the Resistance base C-3PO says “without the Republic fleet we’re doomed!” So the fleet is mentioned in the film. I also think someone else mentioned it a bit later, but I can’t remember the details there.
Lastly, when Kylo is probing Rey’s mind he says that he saw and ocean and and says that he can see "the island." This sounds like a description of Luke’s hiding place a the end of the film. I guess Rey could have had a premonition like Luke did in ESB, or that the lightsaber showed it to her, but it seems more likely that she already knew about the place.