I think Disney really wanted to get everyone back on board after an extremely disappointing prequel trilogy. I don't think there's any doubt that they accomplished that with this one. The story wasn't incredibly deep, but I expect VIII to do much more in that regard. There was alot of fan service, but hell, it's Star Wars from Disney and I expected that.

There will always, always be a percentage of the Star Wars fanbase that won't be happy. I guarantee you that percentage is much less for this one than it was for the trash we got in I and II.

You can say it 'rehashed' characters and storylines by comparing bits and pieces of it to the original trilogy, but the truth is that Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron were all very original characters for the series. The movie did not spend a ton of time on Luke and Leia, so it's not like TFA relied on their presence to work. Again, I really think they did a good job setting up the playing field going forward and earning the trust of Star Wars fans after what we got in I-III.