The Final Destination (2009) Review

Review:
My thoughts on the Final Destination series. Liked the first one, it was something a bit different and had it's moments. Some of the second was interesting but overall I didn't care for it . Didn't like the third at all. So, where does this one fit in? I didn't have the fortune to experience it in 3D, and in some ways that could heighten the experience (it worked well for My Bloody Valentine), so I sat through it like most people in your regular every day movie theater. From start to finish, I couldn't wait for this movie to end. I didn't like it one bit.


Right from its opening credits, it's clear that The Final Destination is yet another by-the-numbers sequel that never strays from formula and offers no new surprises. But who cares? We go to these movies for one reason and one reason only: to see stupid teens die in excellent new ways. Unfortunately, all we're given here are a bunch of cheesy deaths. Sure, there's alot of them, people get crushed, burned, diced, dismembered, blown up, eviscerated, smashed, stabbed and pureed across a series of endless set-pieces. No matter how bad the movie is in the end, usually this would make up for that and then some. It could have been a fun film to watch, but what I hated were the cheesy cg death scenes. This completely killed the movie for me. The deaths, which were mediocre at best, would have been a little cooler if they were at least practical. Instead, were shown cgi blood and cgi body parts. This seems like a Scifi (excuse me, "Syfy") original movie. Besides the horrendous special effects, the writing was really terrible, the scenarios this time around were beyond unbelievable (how many times can you use spilled gasoline?), the story was paper thin, the characters were totally cardboard, but the acting was more hit than miss. I'll expect this to be on the "most terrifying night on television', or whatever the new SyFy calls it now, in a few years.


I wouldn't even consider this a popcorn movie, it was a cotton candy movie. Enjoyable in the moment but all the depth and staying power of spun sugar.