Our family saw two movies this weekend. The first was Coco. When it was over, I had one word: Wow. Amazingly inventive, this movie is filled with characters that seem more real than those in many live action movies. The story arc is perfect, with plenty of plot twists that keep it interesting. The script contains just the right mix of humor and pathos, and the original music is enjoyable. Pixar’s artistic conception of the world of the dead is unexpectedly beautiful, complex, and, above all, lively.

Our family usually watches a movie on Christmas, either at home or in a theater. Coco was a perfect choice for a meaningful family outing, another wonderful idea from my lovely husband.

We also considered The Last Jedi, officially episode XIII in the Star Wars series. Our older son had already seen that, so the rest of us saw it after he left. This movie is rated 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.6 on IMDB–Seriously? Folks writing rave reviews of this are clearly being incented. The more recent, mostly hilarious, reviews on IMDB are all bad, so I imagine there were some canned reviews released early to drum up interest. That worked. The movie was showing in multiple screens at several local theaters, and selling out every time.

We had to look a bit harder to find a theater showing Coco. Sad.

Below is my Fandango review of The Last Jedi, which you may not want to read if 1) you care about spoilers for this movie,  2) you are smart enough to have abandoned Star Wars “a long time ago” in this very galaxy, or 3) you never signed on to it at all. Extra points for those last two categories.

Will I have the strength to resist the Force of episode IX?

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The Last Jedi is a joke. Luke starts out as grumpy old man sans gravitas, appears as Holo Jedi for the final fight scene, then joins the pantheon of spectral Jedi for no particular reason. 45 minutes is spent on a “mission” by Finn that accomplishes zero, accompanied by a new character who is willing to sacrifice the entire rebellion to save him–ie, more a teen with a crush than a competent soldier. Rey gets three more minutes of training, so naturally she rocks at being the Best Jedi Ever. The writers work really hard, ridiculously hard, to keep Princess Leia alive for IX…oops. Snoke is really scary and powerful until he turns out to be super easy to kill. Kylo Ren throws so many tantrums the First Order is rethinking the concept of supreme leader. Quirky, purposeless animals remind us that the biggest Force here is Merchandising.