The Final Destination (2009) - Movie Review

Ten years ago, a couple of filmmakers thought of a great idea: create a slasher film without a physical killer, where Death Itself enacts revenge. The result was a surprisingly suspenseful and well made horror movie. Three sequels later, however, all semblance of originality and cleverness has devolved into a 3D spectacle of awfulness.

In the confusingly titled The Final Destination, which, by adding "The" somehow, and presumably deceptively, implies that this is the last we'll see of the franchise, a group of young people go to a race car event. After one of them has a vision of a car wreck that kills dozens of people, he and his friends escape just in time. Unfortunately for them, their bad acting is punished by horrible deaths.

The Final Destination is, to be blunt, awful. The screenplay and cast combine forces like Captain Planet to create the perfect synergy of bad dialogue, embarrassing acting and shallow, one-dimensional characters. Taking the terrible visual effects into account, the only good thing that comes out of the movie is that it made me feel nostalgic for the original.

There is nothing redeemable about the movie. Director David R. Ellis, who also did Final Destination 2 and Snakes on a Plane, fails to develop any sense of dread or suspense: he seems satisfied providing some poorly conceived death sequences. The embarrassment is capped by a truly dreadful final scene, where for some reason Ellis switches to a CGI X-Ray view of the remaining characters as they get crushed to death by a truck. Lack of budget? That's the only thing I can think of.

The Final Destination only has one destination, and that's the garbage can.