After months of eagerly awaiting “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” I was finally sitting in a movie theater waiting for a 7:30 p.m. Dec. 17 showing next to a close friend — one of the people who introduced me to “Star Wars.”

But then people around us started talking incessantly in a way that made us both cringe.

“So who else accidentally read a spoiler on Buzzed?” one person said

“If this one spoiler is true I’m totally going to cry,” another person added.

My friend and I looked at each other in a way that showed were both repressing the urge to say something to nicely — or not so nicely — ask them to be quiet.

It went on from there, criss-crossing from annoying banter to the edge of giving away spoilers.

For more than a half-hour, I felt like I was sitting on pins and needles waiting for these yahoos to let something slip, because you could tell they wanted to or just didn’t care.

Though disappointing this has been far from unique. People seem over eager to ruin “The Force Awakens” or really any other highly-anticipated film for other people.

I tested this after seeing the movie through a few quick, basic web searches, all of which instantly found spoilers in online Google headlines.

Online spoilers became so prevalent that stars from the movie spoke out online to ask people to cut it out.

But it appears it didn’t work, as people are even featuring spoilers in their profile pictures in the popular game “Star Wars: Battlefront,” let alone across most social media

So I’m saying what I didn’t say in the theater: Shut up, people; quit ruining a fun thing for others for absolutely no reason.

For fans of “Star Wars” or any movie/book series, a new release is something to look forward to and build to, but there are way too many jerks who get a kick out of ruining it for others for immature amusement.

Disney, which owns “Star Wars” studio Lucasfilms, and director J.J. Abrams were historically tight-lipped in the lead up to the hotly anticipated “Star Wars” reboot. Perhaps that has fueled the spoiler brigade to some degree.

But after watching the movie, I get it and appreciate the approach. It made watching the movie that much more fun and fulfilling. The film features some big moments. Though none were huge, “I never, ever saw that coming” surprises, I’m still glad I didn’t learn them until I saw them from a theater seat.

But there’s no reason people should be so eager to ruin the fun for others.

I was lucky enough to see “The Force Awakens” on opening night, but many people I know couldn’t or didn’t want to go opening night. Some, perhaps rightfully so, chose to avoid packed opening-night crowds.

For us, that added to experience: My friend and I arrived more than an hour early to find the theater three-fourths full, but it was fun to see the movie with a full crowd responding to key moments.

Others don’t want the crowd experience. So respect them for this movie and others to follow. There’s no reason not to let others share in the surprise and discovery of any new movie.

 My short, spoiler-free ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ review

Having written a few columns on the hotly-anticipated “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” I thought I should cap it off by telling you folks what I thought: It was good.

A close friend and I agreed we’d give it a solid 8 or 8.5 out of 10 based on the www.imdb.com scale.

It was good because it was a character-driven story. Director J.J. Abrams did a great job balancing a ton of characters, while still managing to make a movie with some of the best characters and acting in the franchise. In my opinion, he also introduces some of the most interesting and compelling characters in the franchise in Daisy Ridley’s Rey and Adam Drivers’ Kylo Ren.

The down sides: Now I’m excited for Episode VIII and have to wait until May 2017. Oh, and “The Force Awakens” makes the “Star Wars” prequel movies even more disappointing.