I just rewatched TFA, and as promised here are my updated thoughts on it.
Positives
I like the first third (or maybe half) a quite a bit. It's far from flawless, but it captures an interesting and engaging atmosphere. The movie starts small and builds into something bigger, which is great. I like the focus on the characters and the introduction to them. There are a lot of moments on Jakku and soon after that just let the audience breathe and absorb the settings and characters. I feel like the Prequels were too focused on jumping into grand situations and conflicts, and they forgot to sit down and establish likable characters that the audience could relate to. for the most part, the characters in TFA feel like real people who have nuanced personalities, at least more nuanced than some of the people in the prequels. The characters are pretty fun and enjoyable, none of them are annoying. I feel like Kylo Ren especially deserves to be recognized as a great character. He's not just a faceless bad guy with a scary voice, he's a conflicted guy trying to live up to a legacy.
I like the visuals a lot. I'll give credit where credit's due, JJ Abrams knows how to move a camera. One thing that especially stands out to me is the use of color and lighting. spaceship engines feel bright and warm, so do lightsabers. The composition of shots is also good. I actually really like the visual style of this movie. It combines the classic look of the OT with newer tech that holds up for modern audiences. Rogue One's retro style works great as a period piece, but I'll admit that TFA's updated look probably works better for the main series.
Most of the comedy works well, and I actually appreciate that they used some form of restraint. This may seem weird to say since a lot of people claim there's too much humor in TFA; I do understand the complaint (especially in comparison to the other SW films), but compare this to other sci-fi like Thor: Ragnarok and you'll see that this is more restrained than they could have gone [Edit: After watching Ragnarok for a second time, I realize that movie knows what it is in terms of humor far more than TFA does). I could just picture a version of this movie that has Luke saying something comedic before they cut to credits or something, but the fact that they kept that a serious moment was great (and necessary). There may be a couple too many jokes, but I feel like the humor is pretty well balanced overall. The funny moments are funny, the serious moments are serious.
I like the lightsaber fight at the end, there's a real weight to it and I love the way the lightsabers illuminate the environment and impact the trees. I like the return to practical effects (both in this franchise and in the larger scope of Hollywood), it really shows. Overall, TFA is a lot of fun to watch, and moves along pretty well. Small things like Poe's "whoo hoo" during several scenes really make this movie stand out from the dullness and lifelessness of something like Attack of the Clones. It has much more humanity and energy to it.
Negatives
I don't like the story direction. I know this is probably a weird complaint since fixing it would require scrapping this entire movie and pretty much everything in it, but it's honestly one of the main things I take issue with. This movie should have started with Luke having a fully functioning Jedi academy, Han and Leia being happily married, and the New Republic firmly established (and not just mentioned offhand here and there); then bringing in a new villain that threatens to tear it all down. Now we've lost the chance to ever see the original cast together again, and it doesn't really feel like a continuation of ROTJ's story. I'm fully in favor of telling a new story, but I feel like the plot could have benefited from taking some notes from the old EU novels (especially since it already seemed to take inspiration in some places). The filmmakers should have sat down and said "where would these characters and the galaxy be 30 years after Return of the Jedi?" Instead they focused on resetting everything to basically the way it was during ANH, which I don't like. I actually feel like the backstory to TFA was more interesting than what happens in the movie itself. Even if I ignore what could have been and just analyze the story as it is, the current story doesn't thrill me. It doesn't seem like a cohesive narrative as much as it just seems like "this happens and then this happens." It feels like someone in the studio came up with a "checklist of things that needs to happen in the movie" (most of which are callbacks to the OT), and the storytellers just strung together a sequence of events to make those beats happen.
The character motivations don't make a whole lot of sense to me. This movie is filled with people making bizarre decisions, and it's hard to judge exactly where the characters stand. One scene that always jumps out to me is the scene where Finn switches sides. Finn's Stormtrooper buddy is shot, and this seems to be the moment that freaks him out and causes him to rethink his allegiance. But it was Poe who shot his buddy! Shouldn't this cause him to hate Poe, not his own team? Even if he didn't know it was Poe specifically, this still gives him no reason to turn against his own people. What's even more bizarre is that later in the movie Finn guns down his own squad-mates (and defenseless people in the control tower) without remorse as him and Poe escape in the Tie Fighter. Sadly the movie is filled with this kind of logic.
I talked a lot about Rey's character a few pages back. I do think she makes more sense then I may have initially given her credit for, but I still stand by a lot of those complaints. She gets a lot of development during the part on Jakku and directly after (even if some of it is questionable) and during that part she feels like a solid main character, but I feel like she's just reduced to a tagalong after Han Solo is introduced. If I only watched the second half of the movie, I'm not even sure I'd recognize her as the protagonist (until maybe the lightsaber fight). She didn't really do anything significant on Starkiller base except free herself and have a lightsaber fight, both of which were in self-defense. Contrast this to the Death Star scene in ANH, where Luke is the driving force behind rescuing Leia, helping the gang escape the trash compacter, and blowing it up later on (he's also eager to help the whole time). Rey doesn't have the same camaraderie with her teammates that made the original cast so fun, and she doesn't seem extremely eager or charismatic (aside from a couple choice moments). She's not the worst protagonist ever, but I feel like they needed to work with her character a bit more.
A lot of small things and details in this movie annoy me. It's sad to say because I do feel like there's also a lot of good stuff in the details, but there's also a lot of silly stuff. Han's never tried Chewie's gun during all the years they've been friends? (Not to mention that running joke never has a payoff.) BB-8's thumbs up was a really cute idea, but why did he pull out a lighter in the middle of a gas leak? What was the point of that gas leak scene in the first place, it never had a payoff? These could be brushed off as jokes, but this is also true of major events in the movie. Why do Finn and Poe take out the easy-to-dodge lasers on the Star Destroyer, but don't bother to take out the guided missiles? Well, because the story wouldn't have been able to progress if they did. I understand all movies take liberties with internal logic to make what's happening on-screen more interesting, but there's so much of this kind of thing in TFA that it gets distracting. I feel I can't go five minutes in this movie without asking "why the heck did that happen?" I dare say that I don't think JJ Abrams really understands logic or the way things work, either that of he intentionally ignores it for the sake of making an overall fun, visual-driven experience (some people may prefer this, I myself feel like it cheapens the world of the movie when things just happen for plot necessity, or for the sake of a joke.)
Overall Thoughts
I don't hate The Force Awakens, I actually think it's better on a technical level than the prequels (although I might prefer TPM and maybe ROTS, if nothing else for nostalgia), it's certainly an easier and more enjoyable watch. I still prefer Rogue One about a hundred times. I'm not saying Rogue One is flawless, but the story makes sense to me, and I can discern character motivation and get a feeling for who people are. Bodhi Rook is an underdeveloped character, but I at least know his motivation and his personality.
I've seen people call TFA a "remix" of ANH. I understan this comparison, but remixes are often put out by the original artists to provide a different take on the same song (Lucas's special editions are more equivalent to a remix). To me TFA feels like a modern "hip" band trying to do a cover of a classic rock song...while completely missing the point of what made the original version meaningful and unique. Sort of like those "creepy" versions of classic songs that started appearing in trailers after Ultron. Sadly the cover will be popular because that modern band is popular and because that song was popular, not because the cover of the song is actually strong enough on it's own to be a hit. Sorry if this is a harsh comparison, but it's the perfect analogy in my mind. For what it's worth, TFA is more listenable than some covers...