To me, ”They fly now” would have worked much better if only 3PO said it. He delivers it in keeping with who he was when he was in the asteroid field from Empire.
“You can write this &^%$, but you can’t say it.” The delivery is terrible and I think just having Finn and Poe exchange a glance that expresses their disbelief (or maybe lack thereof) would have been much better.
I agree. To have them respond with only glances would be much better. You could still have a typical 3PO line but stay in the seriousness of the moment. Sort of a ”shut him up or shut him down” vibe. Like Lucas before him, seems as if Abrams doesn’t believe in the less is more approach either.