Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Ends With a Sizzle

Kylo Ren vs Rey

There's something about the title in a Star Wars movie that gives it its mythic and mystical identity without being too overt (A New Hope, Revenge of the Sith, The Last Jedi, etc.) When the title for Episode IX was revealed as The Rise of Skywalker, it sounded pompous and obvious. True, the saga has been mostly about the Skywalker lineage but did it have to be flaunted this way?

The Secret Life of Pets 2: Same Tricks No Bone

Rooster (Harrison Ford) staring down at Max (Patton Oswalt).

Like its predecessor, The Secret Life of Pets 2 functions more as a series of shorts stitched together and forced to pass off as a feature-length film. They also feel like inferior Pixar movies with the first film bearing Toy Story's plot. The two main leads fight over the attention of their human owner, get lost in the scuffle and have to find their way back home. The sequel resembles The Good Dinosaur with a small and frighted animal learning to face his fears in the wild. But where the first Pets movie at least had a concise story connecting the characters from beginning to end, I can't say the same for Pets 2.