Movie Review: “The Final Destination”
Friday, August 28, 2009 at 6:00PM | By Franck Tabouring 
Seen on: August 28, 2009
The players: Director: David R. Ellis, Writer: Eric Bress, Cast: Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano, Haley Webb, Mykelti Williamson
Facts of interest: None, but I guess there is a reason why films like this one are not screened for critics.
The plot: Several people escape from a tragic accident at a racetrack but then realize Death will not stop tracking them down until they're all dead.
Our thoughts: David R. Ellis’ “The Final Destination” is a film strictly for diehard fans of the popular horror franchise. I mean, if bloody killings involving strong gore and the complete lack of a decent storyline are not among your favorite things to watch on the big screen, I can only urge you not to see this mess.
Sadly, as far as I’m concerned, this fourth installment in the series proved to be a major disappointment, and this despite a decent 3D effect. Visually the film looks intriguing, but there’s just nothing particularly spectacular about watching body parts fly straight into your face for 80 minutes (okay, I twitched once or twice, but that was it already).
That’s all there is to it, really. Occasionally you’ll have a fireball or some other objects heading your way, but other than that, all you get to see up-close is splattering blood. Needless to say, this portion of the 3D effect quickly wears off, and all we’re left with is an ultra-monotonous plot about empty characters trying to figure out a way to cheat Death.
As usual, the film focuses on a group of young people who escape from a terrible accident only to be killed off one by one in gruesome freak accidents. And as usual, one of them has a series of premonitions giving him clues as to how the next person will kick the bucket. That’s all I’ll say about it, because you already know what happens next.
“The Final Destination” kicks off with a solid, fast-paced opening sequence at a racetrack, but things quickly go downhill from here. Trivial conversations between the main characters occasionally slow down the plot a tad too much for my taste, and to be honest, even the freak accidents aren’t as amusing to watch anymore.
Freaky quote: "We're all gonna' die, there's gonna' be huge crash!" – Bobby Campo
The final word: Without the 3D thing, “The Final Destination” would be an intolerable big-screen experience. It doesn’t generate the effect I was hoping for, but at least it looks decent enough. Other than that, I can only hope this truly is the final destination for this series. Enough is enough, no matter what dimension I’m looking at.
Article by Franck Tabouring
Reader Comments (5)
This was a pretty good movie overall. For those of you who want to see it, you should definitely watch the 3d version. Makes the whole experience a lot better :)
Franck Tabouring u should go back in your living room and watch schindlers list or something like that
Heck yes! And I will do that for two reasons: 1) my living room is exquisite and comfortable, and 2) anything I'll watch will not be as much a waste of time than this.
Did you really watch this? The 3D was pretty solid.
I did, and like I said above in the review, the 3D was decent, and visually the film was interesting. The 3D flying body parts kind of bored me too much, that's all.