The Final Destination films have always been more suspenseful than anything, and in a genre full of stalk-and-slash films, they were always a fun diversion and often even encompassed incredibly good film-making. The newest and supposedly last installment in the ten-year series, aptly titled The Final Destination, does an incredible job of matching some of the series' best moments, and ends things in a very satisfying way. Explosions and insanity abound in the new horror film directed by David R. Ellis, and starring Bobby Campo, Nick Zano, Krista Allen, Haley Webb, and Shantel VanSanten.
So, the basis of all the Destination films relies on the opening disaster sequence, and in stunning 3-D, I believe I can honestly say that this one was the best of the four. There's all sorts of blood and cool CGI-effects blazing across the screen, it was just a very fun and exciting sequence.
Obviously by now, everyone knows the most enticing aspect about these films: the highly original and creative deaths. In this movie, it's heightened tenfold by the extremely fascinating use of the 3D, which at times sends all sorts of really cool things flying at the screen. We get a lot of really disgusting death scenes and sequences, the coolest stuff definitely taking place at a mall towards the end. Saying even a single word about the hugely inventive deaths in the film would completely spoil the whole point of the movie, but at a series high of eleven, The Final Destination displays the most kills of the entire series.
The 3D works the very best in the film when it comes to the high-definition, CGI-laden premonitions, which are vastly different than the brief glimpses at future events that were in the first and second films (the third had a complete lack of person-to-person premonitions due to the interesting and vastly original picture-death system). The premonitions are highly effective and in-your-face, for once displaying just the perfect amount of foreshadowing without going overboard. And in a Final Destination movie, foreshadowing is what it's all about.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this installment of the series is seeing the return of "presence" or evil force that was so prevalent in the original movie that started it all. While many of the situations and things this time around were incredibly unrealistic, the 3D definitely was an excuse for all sorts of crazy stuff. The presence works well in this installment, definitely fitting more with the semi-cheesy tone of the film overall. I really enjoyed the red herrings that popped up all throughout the movie; it almost got to a point where you're never really sure quite how a character is gonna bite it, and it makes for an extremely entertaining watch.
The acting? Probably the last thing the audience is thinking about when they come to see a Destination movie. There's some impressive performances here, and a very charismatic lead performance from Bobby Campo, but nobody is trying to win an Oscar here. It's horror, after all. All the actors and actresses are just trying to have a good time, and it really shows. They all work well off of each other. Honestly, with the short runtime, I was seriously concerned that the acting and character development would sort of fall by the wayside. In a lot of ways, the development definitely did, but the actors bring a lot of life to their characters, even the ones who have very little screen time. It's almost like a very fun little ensemble.
David R. Ellis was, absolutely, the perfect choice to close up the final chapter of the franchise. He's at home behind the camera, and he seems to really "get" the whole feel of the movie. The tongue-in-cheek thing is his specialty; he also directed Snakes on a Plane and the well-received Final Destination 2.
What the third film succeeded in the most was three things: character development, highly realistic death scenes, and building tension to a massive boiling point. Where The Final Destination fails in building up much decent character development and in making the deaths hyper-realistic and disturbing, it succeeds in both a fun factor that wasn't present much in the other movies and building tension. Horror-suspense is pretty much the perfect genre classification for these films, and there's just as much fear and intensity emanating from the big screen in this one as there ever was before. A scene toward the middle that I especially liked where two people were in danger at the same time was one that really got to me.
For months now, I've been raving about how badly I wanted to see this movie. After all, it was without a doubt my most anticipated movie of 2009. Did it live up to the hype? Hell yes. It was every bit as brutal as I was expecting and I pretty much loved everything about it. One of my favorite things about the movie was the highly original opening credits sequence, which was sort of a lament to all of the series' death scenes. It was very well-orchestrated, and it set an extremely fun mood for the scenes that followed. All in all, this was definitely near the top of my list for best horror films of the year. It was absolutely fantastic.
While I still think Final Destination 3 was the perfect film and the best out of the stellar franchise, The Final Destination was definitely a good contender and loads of tongue-in-cheek fun. I dug the characters, dialogue, death scenes, and ending a whole hell of a lot, and I'd recommend it to any fan of the franchise or any fan of 3D.
So, the basis of all the Destination films relies on the opening disaster sequence, and in stunning 3-D, I believe I can honestly say that this one was the best of the four. There's all sorts of blood and cool CGI-effects blazing across the screen, it was just a very fun and exciting sequence.
Obviously by now, everyone knows the most enticing aspect about these films: the highly original and creative deaths. In this movie, it's heightened tenfold by the extremely fascinating use of the 3D, which at times sends all sorts of really cool things flying at the screen. We get a lot of really disgusting death scenes and sequences, the coolest stuff definitely taking place at a mall towards the end. Saying even a single word about the hugely inventive deaths in the film would completely spoil the whole point of the movie, but at a series high of eleven, The Final Destination displays the most kills of the entire series.
The 3D works the very best in the film when it comes to the high-definition, CGI-laden premonitions, which are vastly different than the brief glimpses at future events that were in the first and second films (the third had a complete lack of person-to-person premonitions due to the interesting and vastly original picture-death system). The premonitions are highly effective and in-your-face, for once displaying just the perfect amount of foreshadowing without going overboard. And in a Final Destination movie, foreshadowing is what it's all about.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this installment of the series is seeing the return of "presence" or evil force that was so prevalent in the original movie that started it all. While many of the situations and things this time around were incredibly unrealistic, the 3D definitely was an excuse for all sorts of crazy stuff. The presence works well in this installment, definitely fitting more with the semi-cheesy tone of the film overall. I really enjoyed the red herrings that popped up all throughout the movie; it almost got to a point where you're never really sure quite how a character is gonna bite it, and it makes for an extremely entertaining watch.
The acting? Probably the last thing the audience is thinking about when they come to see a Destination movie. There's some impressive performances here, and a very charismatic lead performance from Bobby Campo, but nobody is trying to win an Oscar here. It's horror, after all. All the actors and actresses are just trying to have a good time, and it really shows. They all work well off of each other. Honestly, with the short runtime, I was seriously concerned that the acting and character development would sort of fall by the wayside. In a lot of ways, the development definitely did, but the actors bring a lot of life to their characters, even the ones who have very little screen time. It's almost like a very fun little ensemble.
David R. Ellis was, absolutely, the perfect choice to close up the final chapter of the franchise. He's at home behind the camera, and he seems to really "get" the whole feel of the movie. The tongue-in-cheek thing is his specialty; he also directed Snakes on a Plane and the well-received Final Destination 2.
What the third film succeeded in the most was three things: character development, highly realistic death scenes, and building tension to a massive boiling point. Where The Final Destination fails in building up much decent character development and in making the deaths hyper-realistic and disturbing, it succeeds in both a fun factor that wasn't present much in the other movies and building tension. Horror-suspense is pretty much the perfect genre classification for these films, and there's just as much fear and intensity emanating from the big screen in this one as there ever was before. A scene toward the middle that I especially liked where two people were in danger at the same time was one that really got to me.
For months now, I've been raving about how badly I wanted to see this movie. After all, it was without a doubt my most anticipated movie of 2009. Did it live up to the hype? Hell yes. It was every bit as brutal as I was expecting and I pretty much loved everything about it. One of my favorite things about the movie was the highly original opening credits sequence, which was sort of a lament to all of the series' death scenes. It was very well-orchestrated, and it set an extremely fun mood for the scenes that followed. All in all, this was definitely near the top of my list for best horror films of the year. It was absolutely fantastic.
While I still think Final Destination 3 was the perfect film and the best out of the stellar franchise, The Final Destination was definitely a good contender and loads of tongue-in-cheek fun. I dug the characters, dialogue, death scenes, and ending a whole hell of a lot, and I'd recommend it to any fan of the franchise or any fan of 3D.