I saw this movie earlier today. It was...okay at best, IMO. Even for a movie with a predefined ending we already know in advance, it was super predictable. There weren't really any "wow what is going to happen??" moments in the film because everything either follows standard formulas or is telegraphed super hard.
Characters were okay, plot was dull imo, and, yeah, there was really more time needed to show relationships rather than tell us about them.
I don't get the wonderful reception it's gotten, but whatevs, strokes and folks and stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed the first half, or the middle third, but the last 40-60 minutes of the movie was kinda boring because they were obviously going to achieve their goal and everyone was obviously gonna die. It felt like I was just sitting there waiting for an ending I knew was coming.
Vader's scene at the end was probably the scariest he's been in the entire series though, yeah. And CGI Tarkin was horrendous.
Overall I definitely liked The Force Awakens more.