I feel like we’re missing the point here. In my opinion, the biggest problem with TLJ’s themes is how some actions are portrayed as heroic at first, then unheroic later. Poe’s dreadnought attack and the bomber run are portrayed as a brave sacrifice in the moment, but just a few scenes later Leia slaps him in the face for it. Holdo is portrayed as an incompetent idiot for most of the second act, until it’s revealed that she actually had an amazing plan all along, and all that work getting the audience invested in Poe, Finn, and Rose was useless. Finn’s suicide attack is portrayed as heroic, with dramatic choir music and slo-mo, up until Rose slams into him and tells him that sacrificing himself to save the Resistance is actually a bad idea. Rian’s storytelling style is thematic whiplash and slapping the audience in the face, and I feel like that doesn’t work when you’re supposed to get the audience invested.
Umm… that wasn’t slow motion in Finn’s attempt on the big gun. That was his ship slowing down because the weapon’s beam was powering up. And I don’t think you’ve watched enough old war movies or MASH. It really isn’t heroic or a victory if you lose most of your forces. Poe wasted his valuable resources for the glory of taking out a big target. Leia humbled him because she saw the potential for a true hero and the story molds him into that. It does deconstruct heroes, but only to the extent that it shows us how not to be a hero and how to really be a hero. Finn was going to die and the gun was not going to be hurt (not enough to even slow them down). Finn refused to see it and was going to try anyway. He is echoing Poe from the opening scene and he is taught the same lesson, but for Finn it is about starting the film by running away and ending the film by championing a cause and living to fight another day. Rian borrowed from a lot of WWII movies for his hero themes and he didn’t go against them, but showed us that bravado and heroics are not the same.