Star Wars Is Dead. Long Live Star Wars (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love What I Love, Even When Others May Not)
“Hey Kid.” When I settled into my seat to watch Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker for the first time at my local AMC theater in Connecticut on December 19, 2019 at 6:00 PM, I was ready for the film to run me through a wild and beautiful spectrum of emotions over the course of the next 2 hours and 22 minutes. And so it did. I loved it, let’s be up front with that. I laughed. I teared up multiple times - over the course of five viewings to date, at least 15 separate moments in the film have made get choked up, misty-eyed, or outright weep. No other Star Wars movie, much as I dearly love them all, has provided me with more than four of those moments to date. But mostly, I had a huge grin on my face as I drank in every last moment of the final chapter in the Skywalker Saga. I found it to be a fitting and emotional conclusion to this epic series of films that I’ve cherished for essentially my entire life. I found it respectful of all that had come before, both in ter