JJ knows what he's doing. He made it possible for everyone to completely ignore that abomination of a film in the middle directed by he who must not be named. It was a bummer JJ had to cram 2 movies worth of content into this one, but it was super fun to watch. My rewatches will consist of episodes 1-7 & 9. Just pretend Luke was already dead when Rey finds him on the island (that's why he doesn't take the lightsaber) and bam! You can jump right into episode 9 and JJ fills in the backstory from there.