imperialscum said:
There is no real lead. Finn has just as much weight I would say. It is a similar mess as TPM.This is absolutely and unequivocally true.
Saying that Rey not being the main, focus character for 100% of the movie is the same thing as TPM is definitely not absolutely and unequivocally true. You need to look at the effect that the lack of a single main character had on each film.
TFA split main character duty between two likable characters (you can argue to what degree this happens, but I can see the argument that Finn is at least partially a main character), and the film kept its momentum up as focus shifted between the two. Regardless of which one was driving the action, I cared about the events we saw as we followed either one.
In TPM, the lack of a protagonist (along with many other failings) kept people from having a window through which to care about the film’s events. It wasn’t that we didn’t have a clear protagonist, it’s that none of the potential protagonists were interesting enough to make people care.
It’s easy to take shots at a movie by saying that it failed to hit certain beats, or to say that the “best kind of” protagonist needs to conform to some kind of specific structure, but I don’t understand why Rey not being the only main character means it’s not a good movie.