Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Although I've seen a couple of Star Wars "stories" in the last few years, I haven't bothered with the trilogies since Phantom Menace stunk up the screen. But, Gary won a bet and got to choose the movie we watched tonight without debate so... here we are.

The story demanded that viewers be familiar with the prior films. For example, when the blue guy showed up, I had to ask my husband for his identity, which caused the follow-up question: "you mean the dead guy from the opening words?" So, perhaps I would've liked this more if I was up-to-date... though, judging from my husband's reaction, it seems pretty unlikely that being plugged-in would've helped much. The whole thing felt like a wrapping up of loose ends rather than its own story and it also felt extremely juvenile.

My takeaway was: for completists only.

D+