OK, thoughts
Luke - Didnt like the first third of the movie Luke. After the Yoda scene he was fine, and I totally bought into Force Projection Luke at the end. That was the Luke Skywalker I was looking for. I was surprised they killed him off, however its pretty clear he'll be back as a Force ghost (more on those later)
Leia - I thought I had read that they post-filming found a way to remove her from the series. Well apparently I mis remembered. She should have died, instead of the Superman flight back to safety. I dont know how they will remove the character now that Fisher is gone (RIP). I suppose they dont have to kill of the character.
Rey - As I said above, I dont buy that her parents are "nobodies". Too much went into her parents in TFA for that to be true. Ren said it to throw her off. She is also very clearly extraordinarily powerful. One though I had, and I dont particularly like it, is that she'll be a midichlorian baby like Anakin. It would fit the narrative that her parents weren't really her parents. The connection she has with Ren indicates something far more then just simple force users.
Ren - Hes bad a dude. i dont know how theres any confusion here. He manipulated Rey and Snoke and killed his master, as all those who follow the dark side attempt to do eventually. Hes gone to the Dark side. My biggest gripe with Ren is that they still havent explained what the Knights of Ren are (besides that they're most likely the students he took with him when he destroyed the academy).It would have been cool to have the Praetorian Guard have been the Knights of Ren.
Yoda - A welcome addition. Really enjoyed his part in the film. Are we seeing an advancement in Force Ghost abilities in that he was still able to manipulate the force from beyond the grave? Has he "become more powerful then we can possibly imagine"? Regardless, I think its pretty clear we're going to get powerful Force Ghost Luke in IX.
General thoughts - I dont like how the First Order just shrugged off the loss of Starkiller Base like nothing happened. I still dont like how the Resistance (or is now the Rebellion?) is like 17 X-wings who can seemingly destroy anything they want and the First Order has all these huge capital ships but only like 7 TIEs and have like 4 cannons to defend them with. Was happy to see an A-Wing in the first battle. Really like the visuals of the speeders kicking up the red dust. Chewie cooking the porg was fantastic
All in all, I think I liked TFA better, however there wasnt any scenes as jarringly out of place as the Raathtaar(sp?) scene in TFA. Its not close to Empire though, I dont know how people can say that.
Main line movies in order of my preference
ANH
ESB
TFA
ROTJ
TLJ
ROTS
AOTC
TPM