Final Destination 5

Since its inception back in 2000, the Final Destination franchise has stuck to a tried and true formula where a group of young people (either teens or young adults) barely escape some kind of calamitous death in a freak accident, due to one of the young people suddenly having a psychic vision of their doom, and warning the others before the accident actually happens. The remainder of the film is then devoted to each survivor of the opening sequence being picked off one by one by Death itself, who in these movies is an invisible presence with a grudge, who kills them in a series of gruesome and sometimes darkly comical "accidents". The idea being that the survivors have cheated Death, and now Death wants payback.

Eleven years and five films into the franchise, and the only thing that's changed are the deaths of the characters, and now we have to pay an extra surcharge to see the carnage unfold in 3D. To be fair, Final Destination 5 features better production values and actors than some of the earlier entries. It also almost works on a very basic and dumb guilty pleasure level. This is not exactly a good movie, and I'm not recommending you see it, unless you really couldn't get enough of the other four movies. I know that these movies have a loyal audience, and they'll probably find a lot to like here. I didn't, but this movie is not for me. It's for the people who love how this series keeps on coming up with increasingly twisted and sometimes convoluted ways for its young cast to meet grisly ends.

Allow me to explain in detail my favorite death in the movie, so you can decide for yourself whether or not this movie is for you. A young woman named Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) goes in for laser eye surgery. The doctor straps her into the chair, with a giant ominous laser placed above her. He gives her a teddy bear to squeeze to help calm her nerves during the procedure. He begins to set up the equipment, but then he realizes that something is incomplete in his files, and has to step out of the room to check on something. As Olivia is alone in the room, the invisible presence of Death starts fiddling with the knobs on the machine, ratcheting up the intensity of the laser that will be used in the operation. The laser burns through Olivia's eye, blinding her, and causing her to squeeze the toy bear in her arms so hard, the button eye on the toy pops off, and lands on the ground. After she is blinded, Olivia frees herself from the contraption holding her down, and stumbles about the room screaming. She then slips on the button eye from the teddy bear, falls out a nearby window, and smashes onto the roof of a car below, killing her instantly. Most movies would stop there, but this sequence goes on to show her good eye pop out of its socket in the crash, and roll across the pavement onto the street, where it is promptly run over by a car in close up.

That's one of the good death scenes in the film. The others are largely a mixed bag. Regardless, all the deaths include a group of eight people who survive a suspension bridge collapsing when one of them (Nicholas D'Agosto) has a vision of himself and his friends dying on the bridge. They're on a bus on their way to a business retreat, and thanks to the vision, they get off the bus in time to escape the tragedy. Even though they survive, they begin being stalked by an ominous coroner named William Bludworth (Tony Todd), who is a regular in the series, and has the job of warning the survivors that "Death doesn't like to be cheated". Naturally, nobody takes the guy seriously, until the survivors start getting killed off by Death seeking revenge, and the character who had the vision in the first place has to race against time, in a vain attempt to save his friends. This plot is pretty much written in stone for the franchise by now, with only the deaths of the individual characters being different. Like I said, there are some good ones here, but also a couple lame ones that have a good build up, but little pay off.

At the very least, Final Destination 5 uses its 3D pretty well. As soon as the studio logos fade, we're treated to an opening credit sequence where various objects like knives, skulls, hammers, and shards of broken glass burst through the individual names displayed on the screen, and fly toward the camera. Naturally, the movie itself features a lot of sharp and blunt objects being thrust at the screen, hoping that the audience will duck in fright. Sure, it's one big gimmick, but it kind of works in a movie like this. There are even a couple good laughs thrown into the dialogue. The main things holding me back from enjoying this movie is the overall sameness of the series itself, and the fact that things just aren't that interesting outside of the death sequences.

There's really no point in reviewing a film like this. The fans will turn out in droves on opening weekend, while everyone else will certainly find something better to do. If you're curious about the franchise and want to see what it's all about, I guess I can recommend it, as it's certainly better than some of the past sequels have been. Still, this is nothing to get too excited about.

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