My Worst Moviegoing Experience Ever

According to social media, today, December 18, 2025, is the 10th anniversary of the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It’s not the 10th anniversary of my seeing the movie. I don’t remember that date. I just know I didn’t see it opening night. In fact, I remember kind of dreading going to see it. JJ Abrams has never made a good movie, and the previews didn’t make it look good. But, as a diehard Star Wars fan, I did my duty and went to see it. It was worse than I could have imagined.

That’s really why it was the worst moviegoing experience I’ve ever had. My expectations were so low going in, and it didn’t come close to meeting those expectations. I’ve used the word insulting to describe The Force Awakens before, and I think that’s the best word. It wasn’t just that it’s a horrifically bad movie, even though it is. It’s that it did everything in its power to ruin the original trilogy.

You thought the heroes won? Not anymore. You thought the characters grew and changed? Nope. They reset all that. The movie turned Luke into a coward, Han back into a selfish smuggler, and Leia into a failed politician. The Force Awakens forgot about Vader’s redemption. It tried to say that everything I loved about Episodes IV, V, and VI didn’t happen.

The truly scary thing is that The Force Awakens is also probably the best one of the sequel trilogy. How they could start with a movie this bad and then make two that are worse is hard to wrap my mind around. But even though it’s not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, The Force Awakens takes the prize for worst moviegoing experience.