The turn of the century was a confused one, and horror filmmakers wanted to create something different. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that this genre was suffering from stagnation, the classic 80s horror corniness and imagination were nowhere to be found, while the new wave of horror filmmaking was not as great. Filmmakers knew that they had to evolve, and yet they were still succumbing to that 90s horror mindset when it came to the genre. There was a lot of shock and awe in the new horror films of the early 2000s, but there was nothing of substance that could actually invest you into the story.
How to Download Final Destination
You can download the film from a digital store. You can also stream it. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
The first installation in the incredibly popular Final Destination franchise was released in the year 2000, and it saw a decent box office success. The story chronicles the journey of a group of teens who survived a terrifying plane crash, however, they were never meant to survive it. They were all meant to die in that plane crash and yet by Alex’s premonition, they made it out alive. This is exactly the story that happens in every single one of the Final Destination films.
After that, most of the films rely entirely on the shock factor of the gruesome deaths that follow. Death becomes enraged and retaliates against every single one of those survivors.
The first film was directed by James Wong. No, this is not the creator of SAW, that’s James Wan. This is a different guy who is most notable for Dragon Ball Evolution and The One (2001).
Not to be rude but this director is not great at his job. It is evident with every single film that he has created, including Final Destination. There is a clear lack of vision in this film, and it is extremely evident with every single passing moment of screen time. The characters add nothing to the plot other than simply dying gruesomely for shock value. The pacing is abysmal, the film starts and ends without any sort of struggle. Most of all, there is essentially nothing of value that you can take away from this movie.
The character writing in particular is one of the worst aspects of this film. They feel like a parody of teenagers in the early 2000s, they are missing the rebellious nature and mental innocence that was found in teenagers back then. In fact, almost every single one of the characters here is an idiot. They do things without thinking them through, and every single death is essentially the aftermath of a random plot device.
Not to mention, to make things even worse, this film is full of some of the worst actings that I’ve seen on screen. Not only does every single actor do a horrible job here, but it also seems like the director was done asking them to do retakes after the first sequence in the movie. Everything feels so fake and unrealistic, and throughout the runtime, it feels so hard to believe that this story is even semi-realistic in a world of pure fiction. The only semi-decent performance comes from Tony Todd of Candyman fame, but even he seems to be highly disinterested in the filming process.
Another thing that bothered me about this film was the horrible CGI and visual effects, combined with the terrible cinematography. I love how gruesome the death sequences can be, yet they don’t feel believable due to the outdated technology. The soundtrack was essentially non-existent, so it feels like a moot point even mentioning it.
The Verdict
To be very blunt, when I initially watched this film as a kid, I enjoyed it thoroughly because of how gruesome it was to watch. However, going into this film as an adult who has seen content like this done much better, it feels like I wasted my time. Final Destination is one of the most generic films in the horror genre, and a blatant of the early 2000s, and even after saying that, I think I’m still being quite reasonable.
