TLJ was reviewed better than any of the prequel films:
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace 55% (217 reviews
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones 66% (245 reviews)
Solo: A Star Wars Story 71% (354 reviews)
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith 79% (288 reviews)
Return of the Jedi 80% (87 reviews)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 85% (380 reviews)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi 90% (376 reviews)
Star Wars 93% (113 reviews)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens 93% (384 reviews)
The Empire Strikes Back 95% (91 reviews)
It also scored higher on CinemaScore (Audience reviews) than any of the prequel films
Gorsswise, adjusted for inflation:
Star Wars (#2), Empire Strikes Back (#13), Return of the Jedi (#16), Episode I (#16), Episode II (#98), Episode III (#68), TFA (#11), TLJ (#43)
Some fans
want to believe TLJ was universally hated because they didn't like it. The truth is far from that.
Look, I hate how divided the internet is over the movie. I think it was a terrible film for the franchise, and I'd argue the turnout to Solo might reflect the actual negative reaction of the general populace... Even if Solo was generally well received.
I'd also like to point out there's the whole rotten tomatoes audience score for the film, which is sitting at 46%, with almost 200,000 user reviews. I hate that the media put a spin on it that basically told everyone if someone dislikes the movie, or you see bad reviews it's because nazi's went out and created a smear campaign for the film, and/or you are a neckbeard with no life. As far as I've seen, this is far from the truth. It's really divided in the general consensus.
Rian Johnson made intentional decisions in shots and script that were essentially a big middle finger to fans. The plot fails at several points, where many people other than I have pointed out. No need to go over every little thing agaian, it's all been said.
Some people argue, that the "ideas" put forth in the film are great and they like where they went, but that does not grant a pass on the execution of the film. I've seen the movie 3 times, only once in theaters and twice recently on netflix just to make sure I did not like it... I'm in the camp of wishing it never happened.
The problem I think, is some people look at the plot and say, yeah that's cool what they went for. The invested fans completely hate the treatment of Luke, and some of the liberties they took with the force. The plot also, has it's issues.
What I think people need to agree on in order to have constructive critiques and discussion about the film moving forward is acknowledge it was not perfect... You also need to acknowledge that there are 7 previous movies in the franchise that have long established lore. Some people are more invested than other, and things YOU might be willing to forgive, others simply will not. We all can(need to) agree that this movie threw damn near everything we knew out the window. Some people were okay with that, while other were not... In a film that is the 7th in the franchise, it took a big risk and it divided fans.
My personal opinion is that everything in this film falls apart on it's execution. As someone who loves movies It's been hard for me to discuss this online because of the spin on the reviews for this film. I get accused of being a nazi, MRA, neckbeard basement dweller etc. I'm none of those things, and my enjoyment (or lack thereof) does not align me with any of those factions or movements.
I could be okay with a lot of the decisions in this film, if the plot wasn't so jumbled together. It watches like you had umpteen different producers trying to all put a specific political message in the film, and ended up ignoring what would be best for the film. The casino planet was silly, and made Finn and Rose look like idiots. The "love triangle" thing was really forced... And to be honest, for something that seems to be trying to be progressive, It's kind of a slap in the face to put the two minority characters together. The whole timeline for the film makes no sense, as it takes place immediately after TFA, and you have Rey as an active player in the ongoing primary plot take days to do different things with Skywalker when the Rebels fleet only has 18 hours of fuel... But again, It's all been said before, I just wish we could turn down the heat on discussing the film.