I mostly had issues with the first act and the last bit of it.

The first act was a mess, especially the first 15 or 20 minutes. The stuff reintroducing the Emperor seemed thrown together and poorly edited. Like it was supposed 30 minutes of plot compressed into 5 minutes. Second issue was the leftovers of Carrie Fisher. Digitally inserting her into the movie felt really slapdash and every time they showed her on screen it was painfully obvious that all of her "dialogue" was out of context. Having Lupita there to "translate" for you also didn't work.

I think things found the right rhythm once they found Lando. And especially afterwards when they got swallowed by the quicksand. They seemed like they were actually trying to develop the characters and the worlds and what not. From there, I was good with the story until Rey goes off to meet the Emperor. And bringing back Ford did manage to hit me right in the feels.

Okay, so yeah, making Rey Palpatine's granddaughter was pretty pointless and really the story could have played out the exact same if she really had been the daughter of "no one." The "You are not your past" thing played out through Ren, though I didn't love him having the exact same redemption arc as Vader. As for the kiss, my wife groaned, pretty much everyone in the audience cheered, I didn't care either way (they were building to it in the The Last Jedi, anyone denying that is lying to themselves).

The only other thing I didn't like was the literal hug-fest at the end. Too much pandering, especially Chewie getting the medal from Leia so many years later. However, I did like the final scene on Tatooine.

I think all the "The movie played it too safe! It could have gone anywhere!" complaints are pretty misguided and unrealistic. "The Last Jedi" was a very good movie (significantly better than this one), but the idea that this wasn't going to end with a giant fight against the First Order and the citizens of the galaxy finally heeding the call and striking back is kind of baffling.

So yeah, the weakest film in the new trilogy, but not as bad of a film as some are suggesting.