I saw it 6 PM Thursday at a special Fan Event. Maybe I'll post some pics later.
I went early more to avoid Spoilers than anything else. Spilers was a concern in many ways, like the Jerk-Hole 2 years ago who wrote "Hand sold Dies in the Force Awakens" in the rear window of his SUV (link below)
https://i.imgur.com/h3PjuCDl.jpg
Yes, we are to believe that the command ship couldn't speed up to catch it. It's friggin massive!
It's a means to an end. A Movie McGuffin. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin
Just like in the movie "Titanic", when Jack and Rose are on the same piece of debris but he lets go to sacrifice his life to save hers, some made a HUGE issue out of saying the debris was floating them well enough that he didn't have to do that. Like it was a "real life" event and he chose badly.
Script said "Jacks gonna sacrifice himself and die". So, when they shot the scene, the two seemed to float better on it than might seem necessary for one to have to let go to save the other. But the point wasn't how well the debris was floating on the water the day they filmed that scene, the point was he had to sacrifice his life so Rose could make it.
In this movie, same thing. The point of the script was a long drawn out escape attempt, allowing time for Finn and Rose (hey, another Rose!) to try to get help, a codebreaker at that Casino. So, the McGuffin was that for some reason, the rebel ships had the ability to keep ahead of the destroyers for a few hours, but would run out of fuel eventually.
Some quibble over "why can't the destroyers just go faster and catch up", like they are watching a SCIENCE oriented movie, and yet not saying anything about ships making nosies in space as they fly around, and fighters that bank and turn like airplanes do in air (Actually you did make that very point, which most totally miss), which is totally unrealistic for spacecraft but what we are used to seeing with airplane maneuvers. 2001: a Space Odyssey was a great Sci-Fi movie, but long drawn out boring space scenes due in large part to being realistic.
Though it was interesting that for the Kamikaze "Light speed" collision, that it was done without any sound. Like..... realistic. But in the Star Wars movies universe, not realistic, since we're used to big "Kabooms" when things get blowed up in Star Wars, the bigger the louder.
Another McGuffin in this one was..... "Luke's gonna die". Some might claim that hey why couldn't he project himself like that and still live?". Well, the plot of the script was , he's gonna die and not be in the next movie (unless as a "Force Ghost" like Yoda was). So, they had a great way for him to go out, not be killed by Kylo, but to sacrifice himself to save Rose.... uh.... and the other rebels.
Here is a fan pet peeve, that I have a pet peeve about THEM being peeved. The ones who are PO'ed that after Leia was blown out of the ship into space, she was able to use the Force to "FLY like Superman" back into the ship. No, she didn't "fly like Superman". It's SPACE, ZERO Gravity. Only need a TINY bit of acceleration (in the right direction) to get from one place to another place. While not shown in the movies, in books she even became a Jedi, at one point trained by Luke. But even ignoring the books, and only going by the movies, is it THAT hard to imagine that in 30 years she would NOT at least develop a tiny ability to use the Force to pull on an object with a force (physics) of say one pound? Because if she could do nothing more but apply just a pull of one pound to an object, then she could PULL HERSELF back to that ship in Zero G, using just one pound of pull for a constant acceleration which would quickly add up. Same as if she had a ROPE between her and the ship and just pulled on the rope with one pound of force constantly, with the resulting acceleration per second per second.
So, I just shake my head about the people ticked off about THAT, like she had unbelieveable "super powers" that only "Real Jedi" could have. Which really slights her likely development in all those years, like she could NEVER become a Jedi if she wanted to (and had in the books). Sure she once said (In Return of the Jedi) Luke had a power she could never have, but that was just before Luke told her she was his sister, and the Force was strong in their FAMILY. And Ben Solo/Kylo Ren sure did not get those Force powers from Han's side of the family (Although the way Obi-Wan Kenobi smiled in A New Hope when Han said: "There’s no mystical energy field controls my destiny", implied just maybe Han DID have some unknowing help from the Force). Certainly Leia showed she had SOME Force powers, with her psychic connection with Luke, and feeling/knowing what happened the moment that Han was killed by Kylo (as well as when Luke died). Also of course in Jedi, when the Death Star blew, and Han said he was sure Luke wasn't on it, Leia confirmed that Luke wasn't, she could feel it (Her first clear indication of using Force powers)