Saw the film last night, and it was solid. Not sure I get the "AMAZING RETURN TO FORM" comments, but then I thought Episode III was strong as well, and liked Episode II just fine.
In terms of characters, this was a VERY strong film (treating it as the first part of the story) I thought. In terms of plot, it was fine but nothing special. Slightly too much similarity to Episode IV perhaps, which overall doesn't bother me as it fits with the Star Wars "history repeats itself" theme (particularly if Rey is a Skywalker), but towards the end with the Starkiller base it was all just a bit TOO similar for me. And then for apparently no reason the entire planet disintegrated and then exploded.
One thing that pacing hurt in this film was the real lack of buildup towards the finale. In A New Hope the buildup to the Death Star battle seemed to take longer and the battle was epic and meaningful. Granted we had to deal with characters on the ground this time around but every single sequence, whether it be the people on the ground or stuff in the air, was so quick that you never really got a payoff since the movie showed you "this is where they need to be" *instant cut* "here they are", repeat. There was no real sense of danger when they were on the Starkiller either since they never really ran into any of the troops even though we got the impression that it's this massive functioning facility and even if they did run into any troops we never get to see it. When our heroes were running around the Death Star in ANH we got to see all the ducking, shooting, and evading which made the scenes thrilling. In TFA we just see the characters where they needed to be, unharmed, and doing things they were supposed to be. I don't need to see these guys walking every step but it began to play like one of those 2-hour encore compilation recap videos of a baseball game.
I think it just depends how you look at it. What you're saying about there being a lack of build up toward them blowing up the Starkiller base is probably true; however, the real finale of the film, in my opinion, is the light saber fight with Kylo Ren, which essentially the entire movie was building to. When it finally happens, and considering Ren just killed his dad, it's pretty freaking epic. In Episode IV, the buildup to them escaping the Death Star took longer because it was the whole point of the middle act of the film. In Episode VII, the Starkiller base is more of a side show.
I would agree with this. Part of the problem with movies in general, I think, is that we've got used to really great TV shows these days that, with their considerably longer run time overall, can create large amounts of both plot and character development. In a way, movies work best when focussing on one more than the other, otherwise they risk being very busy. And with the new SW films, they seem to be prioritising character, which is totally fine by me.