Forget the critics and the haters, this movie is good!

Rating: 9/10 (24 December 2019)

I've been a Star Wars fan since I was a kid. I grew up on the original trilogy, and my parents were fans before I even came along. In recent years I've grown dismayed by the wrath that so many other Star Wars fans have vented on not just the prequels, but especially the new trilogy. In fact, the venom others have expended on these films has left me feeling very frustrated; in a story arc this big, spanning over 40 years and with so many flavors (from Clone Wars to The Clone Wars to Rebels to Rogue One to IV, to II, to IX) you just can't please everyone. But the hatred is just shocking.
I LOVED VII. Loved it. I enjoyed VIII--although there were a few quibbles I had with it and some of the complaints others registered were either justified, or should have been anticipated by the filmmakers in advance.
I thought that this movie is, overall, fantastic. Forget the critics, I hardly ever agree with them anyways. They love movies I hate, and hate movies I love. Almost universally.
Spoiler free: the movie packs a lot into its storyline. For the first hour, or thereabouts, I thought some of the scene transitions were a little choppy. And it was very fast-paced throughout. But it nicely tied the newest trilogy back into the originals, I felt, while completing the story arc for the new characters. A few twists and turns... some neat throwbacks... overall a cool story. I can't wait to see it again and again.
One thing that struck me is a number of "course corrections" from VIII that I thought addressed many of the most viable complaints others had with that film. Things that were odd or left feeling useless in VIII were explained or made useful in IX. I wish VIII hadn't been so divisive to fans. I don't think the SW fan base will ever recover from that schism. But for a moderate fan who loves the genre yet doesn't cling to the original laserdisc copies of IV-VI as the "only" true Star Wars, or whine endlessly about who shot first, I loved IX. Our whole multigenerational group did.
Don't listen to critics or haters. Go in, watch the movie with an open mind, and lose yourself in a galaxy far, far away while you consume some popcorn.