Satisfying closure (Spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2019)

That movie is far from being a 10, but even further from a 1. Guys, there are 10 possible ratings for a reason, stop this hatred.
I am absolutely positive that Return of the Jedi would be hated by those "Star Wars fans" if it came out today. It is simply impossible to satisfy this toxic fandom.
The movie has a very extensive story, that does often surprise the viewer (e.g. Rey's parentage). Yet however, the story is not incredible - I mean we accepted that Darth Vader was Luke's father and Leia his sister. Back in the 80s, this wasn't less surprising as today is Rey's origin. All in all the movie serves its purpose with a story that concludes all nine episodes very well. If you understand the movie, you enjoy it. Some elements follow a deeper meaning, a mythological sort of destiny and symbolism (e.g. Ben's final deed) - which I found great. But quite many fans expect Star Wars movies to be like the Prequels, where every little bit of story ans character development is explained so extensively you just can't not understand it. You have to think about IX, then it does all make sense in a very beautiful interconnected way.
What I liked especially was the humor. Whereas TLJ had a lot of slapstick-comedy (Canto Bight, ugh...), ROS uses humor rather punctual to bring certain scenes even closer to the audience. This was especially true for the droids.
Another very good element was the appearance of the elder generation:
Luke was very similar to Ben Kenobi in Episode VI, yet with more humor (also very nice callback to his training with Yoda there).
Han's short scene with Ben was one of the best moments in the entire trilogy, perfecting Ben's character development and giving a last goodbye to Solo.
Leia was really great. At some points you might see that the dialogue of Carrie Fisher was not written for this movie, but you can still love her role. Her force capabilities are also nicely attached to the original trilogy. Also, Chewbacca's reaction to her death has to bring every decent fan to tears.
One other thing that was very good was the dark side around Palpatine. For the very first time we see the Sith from the prequels with their fantasy-religious style connected with the cold and technologically superior Empire. This is finally a movie that proves Star Wars is more fantasy than science-fiction and always has been. The dark side finally gets its own traditional setting as they Jedi already had before. Palpatine as the ultimate villain just makes sense, as he always has been for all episodes. The dark side of the force was seen as equally powerful to the light side, especially regarding Rey's struggle (to all Mary Sue haters: She is no Mary Sue! How could a Mary Sue make this kind of character development?).
What I disliked was the pacing of the plot. The first third of the movie feels simply overpacked with stuff, too many scenes and developments lacking sufficient "picture" to catch the audience. I would maybe appreciate an Extended Cut which does not alter the story but gives it more time to develop.
At some points, the movie just went a little over the top. I didn't really need the lightning attack of Palpatine (although it was one hell of a show), for instance. Some things were just explored to intense and others not enough, more runtime would have benefitted this movie.
Yet all in all, the movie fulfills and sometimes exceeds all expectations one could raise after TLJ. I found the character development of Finn, Rey, Poe and Ben quite deep and realistic, for the first time without stereotypical roles. It is not perfect and it could have been better, yet I really liked it. Other opinions of course are welcome, but those 1/10-reviews are only unjustified hate.
Thank you JJ Abrams for two fine additions to the saga.