I agree with that "room to breathe" comment. The movie paces itself in a crescendo. That's fine, it's an artistic choice. But what it means is that the first act is veery slow for a SPACE ADVENTURE! movie. You look at those droids going around in the desert and sighing... It wouldn't survive 2016's audiences.
Mind you, I am judging "boringnessness" by the standards of the overall SW movies. I'm a big fan of other "boring" movies (like, ah, ST: The Motion Picture, 2001, etc.). I've also seen this comment about the second act of ESB also being "Boring". I have to review the movie again. I've seen the first one just two weeks ago to show it to my kid (who just had seen TFA on the theaters), so I could go like "This is the guy who appears at the very end", and "This is Han Solo" "Waaaaaa, that young man is Solo?", ahaha, that was hilarious. Now tomorrow night we'll do ESB and I'll test its boringness.