The Final Destination Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: It's business as usual with another guy having a premonition and death coming to collect clueless survivors.

Review: Now we come to the black sheep of the franchise. The very fact that they couldn't simply call this movie "Final Destination 4" is annoying unto itself. And you're out of your damn mind if you think I will ever refer to this as anything but part 4. THE final destination? Yeah right. Setting aside the title, the story is weak, the characters are lame, and the acting is abysmal. Say what you want about the other entries, but they all have FD4 beat, hands down, in every single facet of film making. They couldn't even come close to getting the running time up to 90 minutes with credits. Despite these tremendous flaws, this is at least passable and has a few entertaining moments. It's just frustrating that the worst sequel is also the most financially successful installment.

This time around we have some dude, named Nick, who foresees an accident at a speedway. At a glance, this would appear to be a different take on the pileup disaster from FD2, but they do, admittedly, alter things considerably. I'm fine with it...I guess. In retrospect, the movie theater disaster at the end actually would have served as a better and more creative calamity. The pacing is extremely fast as if some focus group idiot scribbled down "get to the kills sooner." Speaking of which, the kills are decent yet I didn't feel any tension due to the lack of buildup toward each individual. For example, the cowboy, as they refer to, pops up out of nowhere and dies immediately. The casual audience is going to say, "who the fuck was that?" Including a second vision, similar to FD3, was equally pointless due to how shitacular it was handled. Did the makers not even remember the goddamn premise of this series?! Nicky-baby saved all of those people at the movie theater with his second vision...so why aren't any of them on death's list? Plus, let's say they all died eventually off screen, wouldn't this change up the main characters' position on the list? Yet another issue I must acknowledge is the one girl at the car wash that almost died. She was narrowly saved yet she wasn't next to die. You could argue that she was saved due to the fact that she wasn't next, but that's quite a stretch considering the setup and that it took other survivors to intervene. Realistically, this was shit planning to simply allow for the lame twist with the cowboy.

Bottom line, never have the audacity to declare a sequel the last one unless you have real integrity to back those words up; just look at "Star Wars," "T2," "Harry Potter," etc. it's not over until people stop paying. Likewise, if you intend to wrap things up, go out on top and with a bang! This entry has virtually no connection to the other films and doesn't do anything to tie up loose ends or reveal something we never knew; hell, they couldn't even get Tony Todd to come back. Although this is such a disappointment, don't let it discourage you from proceeding to FD5 which is one of the best installments. On the other hand, I would say only watch FD4 for the sake of completion. Otherwise, you're missing out on nothing by skipping it.

Notable Moment: When George gets killed. Probably the only shocking death in the film, but still just a copy of Terry from FD1.

Final Rating: 5/10