What were they thinking - so many plot holes

Rating: 3/10 (15 December 2017)

Just watched the movie and while it was entertaining it's really bugging me how far they missed the mark on this movie. Could have been so much better. It's more akin to the George Lucas 2nd trilogy in it's plot holes or story devices that go nowhere, general bad story and dialogue and inability to capture the magic of the original trilogy - which is even more maddening as I felt that Force Awakens was able to do that somewhat.
Let's address some of the things that bugged me:

Marvel style gimmick joke by Poe on Hux to start the movie. Feels really out of place, and Hux becomes more slapstick comic relief as the movie goes on when he did a pretty good job of being threatening and villainous in Force Awakens; a waste of a good character
Yet another case of a Imperial / First Order ultimate weapon that is easily defeated by 1 fighter pilot REALLY ORIGINAL
Finally have another passably iconic Star Wars ship besides the Millennium Falcon in Poe's black x-wing and it is destroyed in the first 20 minutes
All of a sudden Leia is some kind of force master that can survive explosions and the vacuum of space WHAT. This is not even addressed by anyone in the movie, like "that's our Leia casually using force powers that haven't been mentioned before"
Most of the movie takes place in outer space BORING, almost every planet save the Jedi temple one completely forgettable
Game of Thrones style time shifts like when they are going to the casino planet or coming from "super remote" Jedi Temple planet in 5 minutes in the Falcon WHAT
They are on the casino planet for like 2 minutes and now we are supposed to care about these kids we saw for 2 seconds WHAT
Trying to make some kind of class struggle statement after Disney basically spends 50 some BILLION DOLLARS ON A MERGER TO BECOME THE MOST POWERFUL STUDIO IN HOLLYWOOD GTFO
GREMLIN ALIEN LITERALLY COUNTING MONEY IN THE MOVIE SYMBOLISM MUCH
Resolution of what transpires on forgettable casino planet goes literally nowhere and actually would have benefited the movie if it were removed entirely. Benicio del Toro character completely pointless.
Casino planet basically kept in to serve the purpose of borderline celebrity cameos. Most people watching this movie have no idea who these people are anyway.
First order chasing the rebels for god knows how long, it's impossible to tell how much time is passing because it's in outer space, no mention is made as to how long this exchange transpires yet it goes on for most of the movie
Chase justified by first order not having long enough range weapons WHAT
They had that miniature death star cannon the whole time, WHY DIDN'T THEY USE THAT - SHOOT IT OUT OF THE BACK OF THE CRUISER
They make mention of having multiple dreadnoughts besides the one destroyed in the beginning, just light speed one or more in to shoot the rebels
OR EVEN JUST LIGHT SPEED AHEAD OF THE REBELS AND SURROUND THEM FFS
Poe almost completely screws the rebellion over with his mutiny, his 2nd egregious insubordination of the movie - yet after it's over both Leia and Laura Dern laugh it off "I LIKE HIM" "THAT'S OUR CRAZY POE" WHAT
Luke does one force exercise with Rey and she is like a force master when every single other force wielder ever takes years of training, including Luke himself, Kylo Ren by Luke's own admission, even DARTH VADER WHAT
All of a sudden the Millenium Falcon can hold like 390 people WHAT
Zero backstory or plot given to Snoke - COMPLETE WASTE OF A POTENTIALLY AMAZING VILLAIN - everyone is beating this one to death
Zero mention again of rest of the Knights of Ren
Zero backstory given to cool Red Snoke guards though it becomes one of the coolest light saber battles in any of the movies - Are they the Knights of Ren???
Again almost zero backstory or screen time given to Phasma - the coolest Star Wars villain since Darth Maul
Phasma will probably be back in the next one just to fight Finn again like the Star Wars version of Jaws from the Bond movies...
Entire casino planet storyline - the mutiny - Benicio Del Toro - sisters necklace thing - fight with phasma and almost execution - evil BB8 - Jedi Temple caretakers among things that could have been completely removed without hurting the movie, even improving it, or replaced with coherent story that actually furthered the plot and/or was fun
Luke bragged up for years about how amazing and powerful he is, but feels totally impotent in the movie. Finally given time to shine and fight and it turns out to be a complete sham and a complete waste of time
Yoda shows up for some reason WHAT - COMPLETELY MISSED A CHANCE FOR LUKE TO COMMUNE WITH OTHER POWERFUL JEDI FROM THE MOVIES - if you had ghost yoda show up why not ghost Qui Gon or ghost obi wan FFS

I really could keep going but it's pointless. This is what you get when you put Rhian Johnson in charge, WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA, LOOPER WAS TERRIBLE.
So much wasted potential... super disappointed FML