Launched in 2000, the
Final Destination franchised spanned 5 films and ended in 2011, with the last two being released in 3D. The first was a spring sleeper hit and the rest were fairly consistent performers. Instead of a masked villain, we get death literally being the killer. Here's my watch of the franchise, of which prior to this year I had only seen the first two.
FINAL DESTINATION (James Wong, 2000) focuses on teenager Alex (Devon Sawa) who foresees the death of many of his classmates on a class trip on a plane to Paris. After his vision, he freaks out and urges them to get off the plane. Some do, while others remain. While dealing with security in the airport, the plane takes off and explodes midair. Survivors remorse sets in, but death is still coming for them as those alive begin dying one by one in mysterious and grisly ways. I was actually surprised that this wasn't as violent as I remembered. I guess everything looks tame in a post-
Saw horrorscape. And the death scenes are not as elaborate as some of the belabored sequences in the franchise's latter installments. The film was created by a team who also worked on
The X-Files, but the film plays closer to a solid
Twilight Zone episode. Genre references abound, with just about everyone getting a famous horror name. (Hitchcock! Browning! Lewton!) The film is cast with popular young actors from that late 90's/early 00's period: Ali Larter, Kerr Smith and Seann William Scott co-star, with
Candyman himself Tony Todd in an extended cameo as a mortuary worker.
In the second installment,
FINAL DESTINATION 2 (David R. Ellis, 2003) trades in a crashed airplane for a big traffic pileup. This time it's a young woman (
Criminal Minds' A.J. Cook) headed for spring break who has the premonition. The second film does a good job of building on the first and adding to the story, but the characters are extremely unlikable to the point we can't wait to see them die. And die they do, of course. The violence is upped to extreme levels, but it's so cartoonish and this may be one of the earliest films to employ the use of the awful "digital blood". So fake! It looks like someone spilled raspberry jam on the print of the film. It's gotten slightly better looking in the years since, but lets bring back the Karo syrup. Many of the deaths become a little too comedic, and the suspense of the first film is severely lacking. Larter and Todd are the only returning cast members from the first film. Like the first film, the "vision" sequence of the crash is extremely well done even if it seems that too many vehicles are exploding for no reason. It'll definitely make you shiver if you're driving down a highway and see a load of trees on a logging truck.
Swap out the planes and automobiles, now we have a roller coaster of death in
FINAL DESTINATION 3 (James Wong, 2006). Almost a straight forward remake of the first film, this installment probably boasts the most successful alumnus of the franchise: Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The death scenes are a tad less comedic than in the second film, but they are just a little too elaborate. The sequence at the hardware store, in particular, goes on way too long. I guess that's understandable given the runtime is only about 85 minutes. It's quite clear with this one that the franchise is already out of steam and the films aren't really diving into the "psychic" aspect enough. No burning questions of existentialism? The roller coaster crash is ultimately a little too unbelievable due to some continuity errors. I did appreciate the ending of this, though. At least it had that going for it.
And so comes the fourth part of the franchise, the dubiously named
THE FINAL DESTINATION (David R. Ellis, 2009). Released in 3D back when that actually had some promise, this is filled with pop out gimmicks. Debris is constantly flying towards us, while the final act actually might have packed a nice depth-filled punch if I had just been able to view it in the format. The death orgy occurs at the race track, and boy is it cartoonish. So much so it makes part 2 look like a black and white documentary. Low grade visual effects, the film has all the elegance of a Syfy made for TV movie. A few years ago a critic I read mentioned that we'd all look back at films released in the mid to late 00's as looking like shit and I wasn't sure what he meant. After watching this, I completely get it. It has a very digital look to it, but it also looks so cheap. Nick Zano (YUM!) and Mykelti Williamson are the only note-worthy cast members.
The franchise finishes (for now, I'm assuming) with
FINAL DESTINATION 5 (Steven Quale, 2011), which is a decent step up from the past 3 chapters. I knew of the film's amusing twist ahead of time, but that didn't ruin any of the fun. Built around a bridge collapse, that scene is as good as the plane explosion from the first. The characters are mostly still very annoying, but there seems to be fewer of them in this one. And the film at least looks more film-like that part 4, though there are still lots of 3D gags. It's a decent send-off to an okay franchise that never really dives below the surface. Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, and Courtney B. Vance star.
RANK & GRADES:
1. Final Destination - B
2. Final Destination 5 - B-
3. Final Destination 2 - C+
4. Final Destination 3 - C
5. The Final Destination - C-
FINAL DESTINATION (James Wong, 2000) focuses on teenager Alex (Devon Sawa) who foresees the death of many of his classmates on a class trip on a plane to Paris. After his vision, he freaks out and urges them to get off the plane. Some do, while others remain. While dealing with security in the airport, the plane takes off and explodes midair. Survivors remorse sets in, but death is still coming for them as those alive begin dying one by one in mysterious and grisly ways. I was actually surprised that this wasn't as violent as I remembered. I guess everything looks tame in a post-Saw horrorscape. And the death scenes are not as elaborate as some of the belabored sequences in the franchise's latter installments. The film was created by a team who also worked on The X-Files, but the film plays closer to a solid Twilight Zone episode. Genre references abound, with just about everyone getting a famous horror name. (Hitchcock! Browning! Lewton!) The film is cast with popular young actors from that late 90's/early 00's period: Ali Larter, Kerr Smith and Seann William Scott co-star, with Candyman himself Tony Todd in an extended cameo as a mortuary worker.
And so comes the fourth part of the franchise, the dubiously named THE FINAL DESTINATION (David R. Ellis, 2009). Released in 3D back when that actually had some promise, this is filled with pop out gimmicks. Debris is constantly flying towards us, while the final act actually might have packed a nice depth-filled punch if I had just been able to view it in the format. The death orgy occurs at the race track, and boy is it cartoonish. So much so it makes part 2 look like a black and white documentary. Low grade visual effects, the film has all the elegance of a Syfy made for TV movie. A few years ago a critic I read mentioned that we'd all look back at films released in the mid to late 00's as looking like shit and I wasn't sure what he meant. After watching this, I completely get it. It has a very digital look to it, but it also looks so cheap. Nick Zano (YUM!) and Mykelti Williamson are the only note-worthy cast members.
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