Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: Thanks to a premonition, a girl narrowly avoids a highway pileup and realizes she has a connection to the previous plane incident.
Review: You know, it's getting tough to decide if this, FD3, or FD5 is the best. In a lot of ways they improved over part 1, but that ridiculous ending pulls down the rating a tad. This time around they focus on a car pileup as the disaster. There was the obvious attempt to outdo the previous film in regard to the premonition, and they certainly succeeded. In fact, it's a tossup between the pileup and FD5's bridge collapse for the best vision. Essentially, they made everything bigger and badder, with faster pacing, in order to get that "carnage candy" rolling.
Now we have Kimberly as the person seeing the future, but there is still a direct connection to part 1. This facet is my biggest gripe with FD3 and 4--they didn't bother to tie those events to the main story line. Instead of dying in the order you would have died in the accident, things are going in reverse. Clear (what a stupid name) returns as well since they wrote out Alex; not getting Devon Sawa to come back was not appreciated. Simply explaining that Alex was killed by a brick is beyond stupid too. We could have had an interesting dynamic if Alex and Kimberly were discussing the visions and implications as to what causes them. However, they did get Tony Todd to come back...so he can smile at the camera for one of the worst cutaways in film history? Surrre, why not? Anyway, the awesome part of this film is when we realize that these victims all have a greater connection to one another. Clear describes it as a ripple effect whereby the plane survivors helped these people to survive. For example, Kimberly would have been shot with her mom had she not been distracted by Tod's death on TV. This was the perfect idea to continue the series since it introduces all manner of things to consider. We could conclude that FD3 and 4 are still a part of the ripple not explained, but it's lazy since FD5 managed to figure out a way to do it.
As for the deaths, the gore is aplenty. FD1 focused on building a grim tone over sheer gore while this movie was having a little more fun with the material. Most characters meet interesting demises, and they do toy with the audience's expectations here and there. The original ending of FD1--giving birth to a baby to stop death--is used here though it doesn't work for the characters since the pregnant chick didn't die in the pileup after all. Instead, the way they apparently "win" is questionable; Kimberly tries to commit suicide and is miraculously saved. I guess they're trying to say since no one intervened in saving her, since it was a random doctor, that it went around death's design. The film does end with Kimberly and the one cop surviving, and, since we never get a followup for the rest of the franchise, it does stand to reason that these two did cheat death permanently. Yes, there was an acknowledgement of these two dying in a deleted scene from FD3, but it was deleted! Let's simply settle for the idea that their fate is ambiguous. This isn't the aspect of the ending that is dumb though. We get some kid blowing up while grilling and his arm goes flying in front of his mom who is shrieking like a banshee. The cartoonish nature of this scenario is presented horridly. Maybe it's just me...I don't know.
Overall, this is a solid sequel from start to finish. FD2 outdoes the original in numerous ways while still remaining faithful to the continuity. In fact, the revelation of the character connections was downright genius and opened up the door to all manner of ways to expand. This is how you successfully establish a franchise. Unfortunately, the ominous tone is slightly lost along the way, and the ending borders on comical. Whether you choose to continue on with the sequels, these first two entries have the tightest connection; you could very easily consider the story concluded after FD2.
Notable Moment: When pigeon-boy gets it. This is easily one of, if not, the dumbest characters in the series. Come to think of it, his death wasn't even any kind of supernatural force. This fool simply did something stupid that resulted in his death. Natural selection?
Final Rating: 7/10
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