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    Movie Review

    Rogue One blends new and old for another effective Star Wars journey

    Alex Bentley
    Dec 13, 2016 | 5:16 pm
    Rogue One blends new and old for another effective Star Wars journey
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    Rogue One: A Star Wars Story represents uncharted territory for the venerable franchise — its first attempt to tell a story that isn’t directly about a member of the Skywalker family. But the shadow of the legacy lies heavily on the film, not least because Darth Vader himself is an ominous presence on the poster.

    The hero of the film is Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), a woman who has learned to be self-reliant after being split apart from her family when she was a girl by Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) of the Imperial Army. Her father, Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), whose expertise was needed to complete the weapon known as the Death Star, sends a message years later that starts Jyn down a path to try to track him, and any secrets he may hold, down.

    Jyn is joined on her quest by Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a Rebel Alliance pilot; K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk), a former Imperial droid reprogrammed to help the rebels; Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen), a blind warrior with an affinity for the Force; Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang), Chirrut’s friend with a powerful weapon; and Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), an Imperial pilot who risks his life to deliver Galen’s message.

    Any worries that unfamiliar characters would not be as interesting or engaging are quickly wiped away by highly effective introduction scenes for each of the main characters. Each is allowed time to form his or her unique personalities — even K-2SO, whose droll sense of humor will likely make him a fan favorite.

    At the same time, though, the film never allows the audience to go too far into unfamiliar territory. Multiple visual callbacks, most notably the iconic storm troopers, abound even as the characters venture into worlds that the previous Star Wars films never touched. Director Gareth Edwards and writers Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy also can’t resist throwing in a variety of characters – some big, some small – that fans will recognize from the original trilogy.

    Rogue One ups the ante on the battle front, making sure that it stays true to the “wars” part of the title. Most of the big set pieces involve some kind of fight, although true to Star Wars fashion, there is rarely any visual physical damage to any of the characters. But the life-or-death stakes, especially in the film’s climax, have never been more apparent in the series, giving it a dramatic weight.

    Still, because this is a direct prequel to the original Star Wars, there are no real surprises to the story. Every action is leading to one specific moment, and that lack of freedom hampers the film to a certain degree. Even if we don’t know all the beats, we know the group succeeds in its mission, which lessens the dramatic tension noticeably.

    There is one aspect of Rogue One that may be controversial, although it’s of such a secretive nature that I won’t divulge it here. Suffice it to say that it involves the use of a moviemaking technology that has been in very limited usage up until now, and its use here is, in my estimation, both a fun perk and kind of creepy. It will take a second viewing to determine how effective it actually is.

    Despite their characters being unfamiliar, the actors have no trouble establishing themselves firmly in the series’ canon. Jones makes Jyn Erso into just as appealing a character as Daisy Ridley’s Rey from The Force Awakens, and almost as fierce a warrior. The diverse group of Luna, Yen, Jiang, and Ahmed each bring something interesting to the table, never making it feel like diversity for diversity’s sake.

    Only time will tell if the Star Wars series will be able to ever offer stories that aren’t as involved with the original trilogy as the first two new films have been. But fans are unlikely to complain about being able to visit well-known territory from a new perspective, something Rogue One does exceedingly well.

    Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, and Alan Tudyk in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

    Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, and Alan Tudyk in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
      
    Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios
    Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, and Alan Tudyk in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
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    Movie Review

    Final Destination: Bloodlines reboots cult favorite horror franchise

    Alex Bentley
    May 15, 2025 | 4:30 pm
    Kaitlyn Santa Juana in Final Destination: Bloodlines
    Photo by Eric Milner
    Kaitlyn Santa Juana in Final Destination: Bloodlines.

    On the surface, the Final Destination films really shouldn’t work. There is no villain other than the concept of death itself, and nearly every death that occurs is foreshadowed so heavily that it removes the normal suspense that comes in horror films. And yet the franchise was successful enough to spawn five films over 11 years in the early 2000s, and now a reboot, Final Destination: Bloodlines.

    A fantastic opening sequence set in the 1960s sets both the tone and the plot of the film, in which Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) has a recurring nightmare about a disaster that her grandmother, Iris (Gabrielle Rose), helped to avert. A visit to the reclusive Iris convinces Stefani that she and her family should not exist, and that each one of them is destined to meet a grisly end in the near future.

    Met with resistance from her family members, Kaitlyn is unsurprisingly proven right as the film goes along, with different people dying in a variety of bizarre ways. A visit to William Bludworth (the late Tony Todd), a mortician who’s been the one constant in the series, provides a glimmer of hope that they can cheat death. But will they figure it out before it’s too late?

    Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, and written by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor, the film does not try to reinvent the wheel for the concept. The entire point is to get as creative as possible with the death scenes, and the filmmakers take that mandate seriously, with each successive death becoming increasingly gruesome. The Rube Goldberg-like manner in which each death occurs makes the scenes come off as entertaining instead of off-putting.

    The idea of Death hunting down an entire family line due to the actions of the family elder is a solid twist on the series’ central premise, and that change keeps the film from feeling repetitive. The story also introduces the possibility that the entire series is connected due to Iris’ actions, with the character possessing a scrapbook that references well-known incidents from previous films, a fun Easter egg for longtime fans.

    The creativity of the kill sequences does not carry over to the overall story, though. Almost every character in the film only exists in order to meet a horrific end, so anything that they have going on outside of being stalked by Death is purely window dressing. Consequently, it’s hard to really care about anybody, even if they are all related to one another.

    Because characters are so easily dispatched in the film, the cast is devoid of well-known actors. This is by far Santa Juana’s biggest role to date, and she does well enough to want to see more of her in the future. Adults like Alex Zahara and Rya Kihlstedt are character actors who bring some history with them, while the younger group is composed of people still trying to make names for themselves.

    Final Destination: Bloodlines is a solid return for the franchise, even if it feels more like a one-off film rather than a justification for more stories in the future. But given how easily the concept can be adapted into new circumstances, don’t be surprised if another movie pops up in a couple of years.

    ---

    Final Destination: Bloodlines opens in theaters on May 16.

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