why the hate?

It struck me as being a rehash of the 1977 Star Wars.

It's a cheap rehash for sure. But I have fun watching it.

I'll put it down to 3 reasons:

1) It's a blatant rehash of the original movie
2) It makes a mockery of everything before it; the original story arcs of the main characters is trashed, along with everything they accomplished together.
3) TFA doesn't add anything new to the SW table. Worse, it takes things off. There's no character growth of the new guys which makes them forgettable and there's no mysticism or intrigue in the ways of the Force It's just used as a mcguffin to get Rey out of a tight spot.

Only since you asked.

It's a horrible film. And not only because it was A New Hope remade.

There have been detailed reviews and writings that could spell it out far better than I in this limited space.

As it happens, TFA is the worst Star Wars film of them all, IMO. Though I hate the entire new trilogy so that doesn't say much for parts 8 & 9 either.

A better question would be, "Why did it take so long for people to catch on to how shitty it is?".

Because it’s a bad movie and we didn’t like it. Would you like me to elaborate?