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Directed By: David R. Ellis
Starring:
Bobby Campo as Nick
Shantel VanSanten as Lori
Nick Zano as Hunt
If The Final Destination is any indicator of the quality we can expect from future sequels in this franchise, then I pray that this truly is the final one. I have never disliked a film in this blood-splattered, but always fun series…until now. For the first time, the material feels tired and uninspired. For the first time, the death scenes feel cheaply-made and badly-designed. For the first time, I could predict every death prior to it occurring. Admittedly, most of them were already spoiled in the trailer or television spots, but the ones that were not are tepid and dull, including one borrowed almost directly from one of the entries in the Final Destination novel series. Perhaps its biggest area of disappointment is the initial catastrophic event that sets the rest of the untimely deaths into motion. This time it occurs during a Nascar race. David R. Ellis staged one of the best car crashes in cinematic history in Final Destination 2; this accident, complete with faulty CGI and redundant blood sprays, looks like a cheap and exploitive rip-off.
Sporting a plot that is exactly what we have come to expect from this series, The Final Destination has nothing to distinguish itself from any of its predecessors. Final Destination introduced us to the idea that Death had a plan that could not be broken or else. Final Destination 2 upped the ante in terms of creative deaths, as well as alluding to the fact that someone who escapes Death’s design affects the fate of everyone he or she meets along the way. Even Final Destination 3, believed by many to be the weakest of the original three, developed the use of photographs to act as premonitions for the coming deaths. But, The Final Destination, rumored to be the final entry in the series, lacks any of this creativity. Rather, it is all about teenagers getting killed. This would not necessarily be a problem, if the death scenes were fresh and imaginative. Instead, the film makes its fatal mistake: its deaths, though certainly bloody, are boring and one even poorly copies the most memorable death scene of the entire series.
It is quite easy to trash a film like The Final Destination, ripping it apart for all of its most basic flaws. But, really, I am not doing that. I am only looking at the big picture and the fact that this film does not do what, on a very basic level, it must do in order to entertain. We never expect things like Oscar-worthy performances from a film like this. We don’t expect brilliant characterization. We don’t expect a plot that is going to completely reinvent the wheel. That being said, the cast is quite good, especially considering that the screenplay rarely gives them anything to do other than scream, run, or die. In fact, I wish that the principle cast members, including Bobby Campo as the character who has the premonition that disrupts Death’s design, were in a better movie. This one, plagued by technical incompetence, exhibits nothing from them except for their good looks and perfectly-toned bodies.
As I write this, I have learned that The Final Destination has topped this weekend’s box-office, garnering approximately 28.3 million dollars. It is disappointing that a film should be rewarded for being so lackluster, but not totally unexpected. Teenagers will probably enjoy the film and its use of 3-D. They will not know that this is a sad waste of that technology, used exclusively to produce the gimmick of things popping off the screen and not to fully immerse them in a different world, or that the decision to use 3-D in the first place was, no doubt, decided upon so that they could tack on an extra financial charge. They will enjoy the dumb fun that this film offers. Things do come flying off the screen and I did jump in my seat at a few of these gags. I was especially amused by a scene set at a movie theater, when an explosion sends nails and twisted metal slashing through the screen and into the soon-to-be-dead audience. It is delightfully self-aware and surprisingly well-done. I just wish the rest of the film had been that good.
Sporting a plot that is exactly what we have come to expect from this series, The Final Destination has nothing to distinguish itself from any of its predecessors. Final Destination introduced us to the idea that Death had a plan that could not be broken or else. Final Destination 2 upped the ante in terms of creative deaths, as well as alluding to the fact that someone who escapes Death’s design affects the fate of everyone he or she meets along the way. Even Final Destination 3, believed by many to be the weakest of the original three, developed the use of photographs to act as premonitions for the coming deaths. But, The Final Destination, rumored to be the final entry in the series, lacks any of this creativity. Rather, it is all about teenagers getting killed. This would not necessarily be a problem, if the death scenes were fresh and imaginative. Instead, the film makes its fatal mistake: its deaths, though certainly bloody, are boring and one even poorly copies the most memorable death scene of the entire series.
It is quite easy to trash a film like The Final Destination, ripping it apart for all of its most basic flaws. But, really, I am not doing that. I am only looking at the big picture and the fact that this film does not do what, on a very basic level, it must do in order to entertain. We never expect things like Oscar-worthy performances from a film like this. We don’t expect brilliant characterization. We don’t expect a plot that is going to completely reinvent the wheel. That being said, the cast is quite good, especially considering that the screenplay rarely gives them anything to do other than scream, run, or die. In fact, I wish that the principle cast members, including Bobby Campo as the character who has the premonition that disrupts Death’s design, were in a better movie. This one, plagued by technical incompetence, exhibits nothing from them except for their good looks and perfectly-toned bodies.
As I write this, I have learned that The Final Destination has topped this weekend’s box-office, garnering approximately 28.3 million dollars. It is disappointing that a film should be rewarded for being so lackluster, but not totally unexpected. Teenagers will probably enjoy the film and its use of 3-D. They will not know that this is a sad waste of that technology, used exclusively to produce the gimmick of things popping off the screen and not to fully immerse them in a different world, or that the decision to use 3-D in the first place was, no doubt, decided upon so that they could tack on an extra financial charge. They will enjoy the dumb fun that this film offers. Things do come flying off the screen and I did jump in my seat at a few of these gags. I was especially amused by a scene set at a movie theater, when an explosion sends nails and twisted metal slashing through the screen and into the soon-to-be-dead audience. It is delightfully self-aware and surprisingly well-done. I just wish the rest of the film had been that good.
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