Today we are talking about The Final Destination. If you’re a fan of this supernatural horror franchise, you are undoubtedly already aware of the way these films go. There’s a routine path that they follow, and you can mentally go through all the cliched scenes that you’re anticipating on screen before your viewing experience even begins.
As always, these films will begin with a daring escape from Death, and then afterward, Death swears vengeance. Despite the fact that they had gotten repetitive, these films had a formula that worked. Yet after three films, it became overused. While the formula seemed to have worked for the previous three films – Final Destination, FD 2, and FD 3, The Final Destination turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
How to Download The Final Destination (2009)
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
Death cannot let go of those who betray it, and it shall have its vengeance against those that defy Death’s calling. The game of hunter and prey ensues after Nick gets a vision of a car crash that will claim the lives of every spectator as he and his buddies are watching a car race in a stadium. He succeeds in rescuing his friends, nevertheless. How long can he delay death, though? Death’s invisible hand begins to devise an intricate series of deadly situations for its escapees, occasionally with a dash of deliciously dark humor.
This is an under 90-minute popcorn flick, which is very short for a blockbuster horror film. Despite that, this film contains so many repetitive moments that it keeps reusing, for example; the opening titles, which give the audience a preview of what to expect.
Additionally, it completely lost momentum in the final act of the film, which led to one of the most rushed endings in the franchise. I sense that it was probably just director David R. Ellis’ way of expressing he doesn’t know how to create the climax for the film.
Although the eye-candy cast made watching this movie bearable, their acting range has significant space for improvement. Obviously, I didn’t go in expecting Oscar-winning stuff in its storyline or acting, but Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Final Destination 3 did raise the bar a bit more than usual. The cast doesn’t do a horrible job, but their performances aren’t good in any way. Well, at least it’s better than having a film with truly bad performances, which is also something that this franchise has gone through before.
When it comes to the ways in which Death takes out the survivors, perhaps this film is by far the worst out of all. It’s just straight-up laughable, none of the deaths in this film have the same impact as the debts in previous installations. In fact, the debts in this film feel comedic rather than horror, which is something that harms the quality of this film as part of being in a horror franchise. Hunt Wynorski’s death sequence is the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages in a horror film. He literally dies due to getting sucked into a water drain and explodes out of the meter that’s keeping the water pressure in check.
The Visuals
Visually speaking, the film is nothing special just like the previous installations and the franchise. However, this time around, the debts aren’t inspired either and lack a lot of creativity. Now combine that with horrible cinematography and some of the worst music combinations that you would find in a franchise. Well, we got one of the most uninspired and gimmicky films in the Final Destination franchise.
Verdict
The creators of this film welcome back Final Destination 2 director David R. Ellis, just as director James Wong returned to helm Final Destination 3! However, unlike James Wong, David R. Ellis hasn’t honed his craft in his time away and the result is an underwhelming product.
The Final Destination is essentially just under 90 minutes of bland acting, bad writing, and a sequence of deaths strung together by 5 minutes of completely insignificant character development. As awful as the graphic deaths were, watching this film’s plot play out was even more mentally taxing.
