7-9 had one major problem with me..... POWER JUMP. With little to no training they were doing things that Yoda couldn't / wouldn't ever dream of. Stopping a blaster shot in mid air? Protective shell in deep space? Bah!
But it or something like it had to be done. The stirring of the pot if you will. Afterall, there has to be an evolution of stories or else they become stale.
Just wish they didn't do it this way.
Special effects were awesome however.
In Star Wars the Clone Wars Darth Maul was able to use the force to deflect laser blasts without the usage of a lightsaber. So I suppose stopping one straightup wouldn't be too far of a stretch.
The sad thing is that they could have totally explained this away easily. "With fewer people using the force, the force has grown in power, thus people are able to do more things and thus more people are becoming force sensitive". Or something like that. And BOOM! one line and you got reasons for Finn, for the dude in Rogue One and why people are able to do more powerful things in 7-9 than in previous movies. Is it a perfect solution, no, but I came up with it in like ten seconds. It probably needs a little fleshing out, but that shouldn't be too difficult. Of course some people may not like the explanation, but at least there would be one.
Anyway, I still look forward to Star Wars stuff even if episodes 1,2,3,7,8,9 had major ups and downs because I like the setting well enough. They're no longer automatically movie theatre movies anymore, but I'll probably see them all eventually. (And I'm still looking forward to Mandalorian Season 2; even without Ahsoka Tano, should be cool).