I have no problem with people disliking the film, but a lot of these negative critical analyses simply rely on taking the worst possible read of the source material and disregarding the true intentions of the creators. Thats not how you analyse film.
Dislike it all you want but a film is not “bad” or “poorly written” simply because you choose to interpret it a certain way. For every negative analysis of a plot point or character moment, there’s a totally rational read that works in the context of the narrative, the character arcs and the thematic elements of the story.
I just want to bring up one example of bad interpretation: Finn’s sacrifice.
Many of the critics read it as Finn is making a grand heroic sacrifice, a great way to end his character arc, to save the rebels and become a true hero of the republic, its his moment of glory, before having this taken away from him for no other reason that Rose selfishly just wanting a kiss, dooming the rebels in the process.
And thats one read of the scene which does sound like bad writing. But that is NOT what the scene is ACUTALLY trying to say.
Finn is acting out of hate, he hates the first order, what they did to him, what they’ve done to those he cares about (Rose, Rey), he has all the reason in the world to. And this is not a grand heroic action. The way the scene is shot, lit, scripted, scored, all shows this to be a futile suicide mission, the music is not heroic, his ship is literally melting as he flies towards this thing which cant possibly be taken down by what is basically a microlight. Poe knows it, Rose knows it, Finn should know it but hes blinded by hate.
So it seems pretty reasonable that Rose, who already lost a sister to the first order, would want to stop Finn from doing something stupid in the name of hate when she knows it wont help. And then she basically spouts off what is arguably the main message of the film “Don’t fight what you hate, save what you love”. Goofy as it sounds its pretty much the through line for the whole dang movie. Finn learns it, Rose learns it, Luke learns it, Poe learns it, Rey learns it sort of. You don’t have to like the film because of it, but you got to understand this is GOOD writing.
Yes films are always up for interpretation. But when you analyse a scene contrary to how the scene is actually play out, its a very disingenuous way to criticise. Sure there is a question on how effectively the true intentions of a scene are shown and some of that is up for debate, but I don’t think that this particular scene was ambiguous at all.
Id admit that RJ puts a little too much faith in the audiences ability to interpret his movie. I myself found this scene a little conflicting. RJ puts a lot of its stock in thematic elements and character arcs that are a lot less transparent than those in the OT. You don’t expect to have to consider themes and interpretations in what are supposed to be children’s movies.
And before you comment, yes I understand that THIS is NOT the reason you hated this film or you entirely understand what RJ is trying to say in the TLJ you just didn’t like what it was or you hated how he was saying it or just thought it was totally wrong for a star wars film to include themes like love and hate. Or you hate the idea that I’m insulting your ability to analyse film or that my method of film criticism is some how the only right way. I understand you might think that good themes and consistent messaging don’t make a well written film and i would disagree because thats what ALL well written films have to some extent, every good script has some larger meaning to justify its existence past simply telling a story, and if you disagree that the film had good themes and consistent messaging well thats up for debate but you’re going against some strong evidence. I know you might have found this scene to be just fine and found other scenes to be much much worse in which case I ask you to simply, as I have, consider what the best possible interpretation of that scene is and how that could positively integrate with the larger story.
