Pretty much the same here! The two people I went with both thought it was great! I also teared up a lot in a few scenes, and I was surprised at how much those scenes actually affected me! I was also unaware at the backlash when I went to see it. I did see that a few freaks who saw it early were not all that thrilled with the movie, but I just chalked it up to the general negativity of this board. And the few little things that I heard, like how Rian had delivered something never seen in a SW movie, I was expecting some major major wacky twisty things, but really I don't see that at all in the movie. Yes, it had some unexpected turns, but I didn't think they were that major. Just seemed like good, smart, clever storytelling to me.
But it's nice to see a few people here on the board who enjoyed the movie!