This came up in a discussion with a buddy of mine about what was really irking me about this movie. It's that it kinda wants to be Star Trek.
Hear me out here...
Star Trek, at it's core, has always been about presenting modern moral and philosophical dilemmas with a Sci-Fi veneer on them to obfuscate the direct references and try to get the viewer to consider it from a different viewpoint, and it's brilliant at this. It's got a setting and character purpose built for this kind of storytelling. TOS Klingons were the Russians, Romulans were the Chinese, and Vulcans were the Japanese, men with black and white faces to show up an outsiders way to look at racism..
Star Wars, at it's core, has always been a hero's journey style space opera on a mythological level of storytelling. It's about those stories as old as time style storylines, but woven into a Sci-Fi setting. This was all the original trilogy was about, the prequels even tried to go there but had issues for various reasons. Episode VII hit on those notes and got called derivative for it.
Then Episode VIII comes and goes after all the "we're going to show the strong woman" bits.. with the "We're going to show our icons as vulnerable and flawed" parts, and the "Screw the old ways, LOVE WINS" stuff is trying DESPERATELY to essentially be Star Trek. As said above, they played to a very different audience. And with a very different type of story. Problem is, we already have a Star Trek, and it's good at being what it is.