I still remember the sheer shock of seeing The Phantom Menace trailer before The Prince of Egypt in late 1998. I was aware a new Star Wars film was in the pipeline, but somehow seeing it up there on the screen, in moving images with aliens, droids, lightsabres, etc, made me wonder if I was dreaming. A new Star Wars film? One I hadn't seen? One I didn't know every single line, sound effect, and music cue from? It was unthinkable and exciting beyond belief.

Alas, the rest is a mostly litany of disappointment. For me, the only post-Return of the Jedi Star Wars film to come close to recapturing the out-of-body-experience miracle of the original three is The Last Jedi (though I did like The Force Awakens and Rogue One).