Regarding Leia's 'spacewalk', which seems to be the thing that bothers people the most, here are a few thoughts.
A normal person can survive about 15 seconds in the vacuum of space. It's hard to tell how long she was out there, as the scene cuts away and then cuts back, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that it isn't the minutes that it appeared to be and is actually just a few seconds.
In the old expanded universe stuff, Leia was a powerful Jedi in her own right. Obviously the new cannon is different, but I think this shows that she at least has some training from Luke, or taught herself. She's a Skywalker after all, so the force is strong in her, even if mostly undeveloped. And we really don't know much about the intervening years since RotJ, so there is lots of time for her to pick some stuff up.
Even though she was blasted in 'space' she is still within the deflector shield bubble that is protecting the ship from the stardestroyer's volleys. Maybe the shield also holds in a small amount of atmosphere? Or at least prevents the atmosphere that was on the bridge from escaping, thereby buying her some more time.
Anyway, just a few thoughts that I came up with between the two viewings and since that help me get past that scene. I still wouldn't say I like the scene... but at least it isn't ruining the whole movie for me like it is for some people.
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