Spoilers below, obviously.
1) The First Order
At the end of Return of the Jedi, the second Death Star has been destroyed, the Emperor and Vader are both dead and (in the re-release of the film, anyway) the entire galaxy is seen celebrating the end of the Empire.
If you walked out of a movie theater in 1983 and never heard of the Expanded Universe, you probably just assumed that there was lasting intergalactic peace and everyone lived happily ever after. If you were into the Expanded Universe, you knew that things were still a bit rocky, what with all the Prince Xizor and Grand Admiral Thrawn-types, and Han and Leia's son growing up to be a Sith (hey, that sounds familiar!). But generally speaking, things post-Jedi were much, much, much better than they were pre-A New Hope.
So it was a bit disappointing to find out that nope, not too long after that big party on Endor, everything went right back to shit.
What was even the point of the Rebellion fighting back against an overwhelming force like the Empire if their only reward was getting to do it all over again against The First Order? Not only have none of the main characters from the original trilogy moved on, they've actually regressed. Leia is once again hiding out in crappy rebel bases. Han and Chewie went back to smuggling. Luke is again in exile, though at least this time, he picked a nicer planet than Tatooine.
It just makes the whole struggle from those first films seem a bit futile, you know? Happy endings in movies are always fleeting when there's a sequel, but I'm not sure it should feel quite that fleeting.
2) The Starkiller Base
If there's one main criticism against Return of the Jedi that's hounded the movie since its release, it's that the story is basically just a rehash of A New Hope in regards to the climax once again revolving around the destruction of the Death Star.
So what did JJ Abrams and company do when they got their shot to write a new Star Wars film after having thirty years to think about what they'd do? Introduce yet another Death Star! Sure, it had a different name. And it seemed to be somewhat more efficient at blowing up planets than either of the first two. But it was still a Death Star, complete with a convenient structural weakness that could result in its complete destruction.
And, I mean, look: Apple has hundreds of engineers who are constantly hard at work on the iPhone, designing every new version and correcting the flaws of each previous one. You're telling me that no one in the First Order can come up with an ultimate weapon that can't be taken out by a plucky group of X-Wing pilots? If the answer is no...well, okay, fair enough. Steve Jobs wasn't perfect, either. But then maybe it'd make sense to guard the base's shield generator with, say, 1,000 troops instead of just a couple dozen? You know those rolling robots with shields that the Trade Federation had in The Phantom Menace? Even just a few of those would have gotten the job done!
Roughly 42% of Star Wars films have ended with the destruction of a Death Star or Death Star-like weapon. That's enough. No more. Next time, please come up with something original.
3) Han's death
Even if you weren't spoiled ahead of time, I think lots of Star Wars fans expected Han to die in The Force Awakens. Harrison Ford famously wanted Han killed in Jedi, and never really seemed enthusiastic about reprising the character. Maybe at this stage in his career, it was being reduced to doing films like Morning Glory or Cowboys & Aliens that changed his mind, but it seemed unlikely that he'd want to do an entire new trilogy.
But the moment Han called out to Kylo Ren on the catwalk, I suspect even those who had never seen a Star Wars film before, knew what was about to happen. In my theater, anyway, there were certainly no surprised gasps, or any discernible reaction, when one of the most iconic and beloved film characters ever got impaled by a lightsaber and fell to this death.
I'm fine with Han dying. I imagine Harrison Ford is really fine with Han dying. But it would've had so more dramatic effect if it had happened suddenly and without warning instead of the cliche of the parent thinking he'd gotten through to a villainous child, only to get killed for his trouble.
4) Rey
I feel I need to begin with a disclaimer, because holy shit, people on Twitter are pissy about this.
I love Rey. I think she's a fantastic character. I love Daisy Ridley. I'm amazed that, per her IMDB page, just two years ago she was just doing guest spots on British TV series. I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up being the next Jennifer Lawrence.
Currently, there's a bit of debate about whether or not she's a "Mary Sue." Do I think she is? Not especially. But I also don't think it's a completely out there suggestion, and I'm surprised by people's eagerness to shut down even the conversation about it. I get that the reaction from some idiots to Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths in regards to fan treatment of female genre characters, but I'm also not sure that lashing out at a fairly mild critique of another female genre character is the right response, either.
To the extent I have a problem with Rey--and I think this is where those who do consider her a Mary Sue are coming from--it's not that she's a strong, capable female character. It's great she's a strong, capable female character. In Episode IX, if Jedi Master Rey ends up fighting Kylo Ren and the clones of Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Maul, and wins, fantastic. I'd happily watch that movie.
But...she's not there yet. Nor should she be. It's just the first film in the trilogy.
Bear this in mind: The events of The Force Awakens take place over just a few days. In that time, Rey, who obviously has latent Force abilities, but has never consciously used them before the movie begins, is able to resist Kylo Ren's use of the Force to obtain information from her. She's able to Jedi Mind Trick a Stormtrooper. She's able to effectively wield a lightsaber in a fight and defeat a far more experienced opponent.
That's not supposed to be the starting point for a Jedi. Any Jedi. Male or female. And yeah, I'm really hoping there's a good reason why Finn was able to use a lightsaber so well, too. I don't imagine Storm Troopers get much sword training in the First Order.
The biggest issue I had with JJ Abrams' Star Trek reboot was how Kirk went directly from Starfleet Academy cadet to captain of the Enterprise at the end of the film. When we first meet James T. Kirk (the original one, I mean), he's young, but he's obviously had plenty of experience before he wound up in command of a starship. Abrams skipped over all that boring stuff just so the film could end with Kirk in the captain's chair.
We all know Rey will probably end up being a great Jedi Knight. And just like we did with Luke, we have three films in which to get to that point. There was no need to rush it right off the bat. By doing so, it may not make her a Mary Sue, but it's not exactly great character development, either.
It's entirely possible that we'll learn something in the next film that will cause all of this to make sense. But until then, I don't think anyone can be blamed for basing their judgment on just the facts that we have to go on.
5) General Hux
Isn't he a little young to be in charge of the entire military operation? Grand Moff Tarkin was, like, 70. If the First Order can promise this level of career advancement potential to new recruits, no wonder the Rebellion is so badly outnumbered.
