Eh... it was OK. Some parts of it were good but I felt like it could have been a lot better. Like, some small things were very good, but the big things -- talking about the Force, the heart of Star Wars, those moments fell flat. There was a lot of nostalgia and some good scenes, but it just didn't come together in the way that either of the first two did. A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back were both better. I can see why Lucas wasn't totally satisfied with it --- it had a lot of good hollywood popcorn flick moments that the other movies didn't necessarily have, but I didn't feel like it captured what Star Wars is about in the way that it should have.
I mean, it was a good movie, don't get me wrong, but I can see where Lucas didn't find it to be what he wanted. If Lucas had this kind of direction for the small things + the big things he wanted to focus on and included, they would make the greatest movie ever and tell the story perfectly. This had all the little things the prequels were missing but it was missing some of the soul that they had. I just wish it would have had more depth to it, more about the Force. But it was good, it was worth watching, although some of the scenes didn't come together fully, IMO
And I agree that it lacked emotion and suspense, it was not comparable to how you felt watching either of the first two films or even the third was better in some ways.
It relied too much on the greatness of the previous movies. That's the only way it compared to them, by referencing them, it didn't have the soul they had. Although a couple moments were good, but it wasn't enough, they should have focused on that and and not the popcorn moments.