Here’s an interesting article, that defends TLJ:
https://medium.com/@JeffreyTWebb/the-last-jedi-is-the-first-existentialist-star-wars-80149ef1af00
“When fans complain that Rian Johnson is “trolling” Star Wars fans, I think this is part of what they’re trying to say. We had our golden calf — how dare you melt it. But the lesson of The Last Jedi is that we don’t need golden idols to have an epic worth believing in. Flawed men and women, in the end, will do.”
I think she hits the nail on the head, except for the fact, that what she describes as a golden calf is very meaningful to many others. I think this is where the heart of the divisiveness comes from. There is an air of dismisiveness in the word “golden calf = false idol”, that I believe many also experienced, when watching the film. They view TLJ as a form of iconoclasm:
