Final Destination: INADVERTENT HUMOR?!?

Actually 3D techniques have improved radically since the old red and blue glasses days of the 50's, and cheesy productions like Creature From the Black Lagoon. (By far, my favorite movie monster and the film is actually better in non-3D). We have Disney studios to thank for the advances in 3D, but quite honestly, it is still more of a gimmick than an attraction.

But to address another issue, I've never been particularly terrified of dying in a car wash. My fear has more to do with financial ruin. On that score, paying 7 bucks to  let a robot pee on my car is a bit much to handle.

Originally posted by dEd Grimley 3D comes once a decade, and often quickly leaves when people remember how much of a headache it gives you. As much as I enjoyed Coraline, it was a real pain to keep that up for that long. Maybe FD3D is the straw that'll break the Camel's back for the 2000's.

Originally posted by moviewizguy Really? Some movies are using the 3D to immerse the audience in the movies' environment, like "Coraline" and the upcoming "Avatar." This new 3D isn't getting stale at all.

The only thing I've ever really felt "immersed" in while watching a 3D movie was the greed of the studios that require me to cough up a couple of extra bucks per ticket. Heck, I can see a couple of 3D releases in standard format and save enough to let the robot pee on my car.

saturnwatcher speaks the truth, for every "Coraline" or "Avatar", we get 12 more movies that are just using 3-D solely as a gimmick to suck more money out of you. Kinda like for every 10 movie reviews you post that say the movie is "okay at best", there will be 100 more saying it sucks and shouldn't have been made. 

I know... I'm stunned.

Maybe my super low expectations will help me like the movie even more? I totally would do that for every movie if that worked all of the time.

Thank you, saturnwatcher. That's a good advice. I'll be watching it in like 2 hours anyway.

I need to see at least one FD movie in theaters before I die. 

Originally posted by saturnwatcher Call me a maverick if necessary, but if I want to see a movie, I go to see it regardless of the critical opinion. It has happened that I've enjoyed movies that the lion's share of critics didn't care for. The world continued to spin on regardless of the fact I liked a movie that got panned. It has also happened that I have gone to a movie that got fried by critics and walked out saying, "Wow, the critics were right...that movie blew." No harm done. By the way, I've probably had more experiences of going to see movies that were well received by critics that I personally found unbearably tedious. If you can bear one moment of insufferable, old-guy advice, you are going to find that people are going to be attempting to tell you what to think for the rest of your life. Make up your own mind.

 

The only creepy thing about it is that people like you are trying to make it seem like this movie had anything to do with that guy's death. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill!

As a man named Gump once said, "Sh*t Happens!" And that's exactly what's happening here...  

On what should have been a fun-filled day at the races, Nick O'Bannon has a horrific premonition in which a bizarre sequence of events causes multiple race cars to crash, killing him and his friends. When he comes out of this grisly nightmare Nick panics, persuading his friends and others to leave, escaping seconds before Nick's frightening vision becomes a terrible reality. Thinking they've cheated death, the group has a new lease on life, but unfortunately, it is only the beginning. As his premonitions continue and the crash survivors begin to die one-by-one Nick must figure out how to cheat death once and for all before he, too, reaches his final destination.

I would like to start off by saying I'm a fan of the FINAL DESTINATION series. Even the much maligned third film is starting to grow on me. When it was announced that David Ellis was returning to the director chair (along with screenwriter Eric Bress), I was quite excited, considering that part two is arguably the best in the series. But this one. If I were to describe this film in one word, I would say DISAPPOINTING. In fact, this is one of the most disappointing movies of this year! The fact that the makers of part two has returned just adds on to the frustration.

The movie starts off pretty good. The premonition sequence works fantastically with the 3D, even though it's not as good as part two's brilliant car pile-up. The opening credits is ingenious, showing us the previous films' memorable death scenes. From there on, I was enjoying the film for what it was. This film also contains the most ironic and funniest death scene in the whole series but since everyone knows that people go watch these movies for the death scenes, I'll keep my mouth shut. One paradoxical thing I should say is that the death scenes in here are more for quantity than quality, which is quite unfortunate. However, these deaths work really well with the 3D.

In fact, one can argue that the laziness from the filmmakers is because of the format of the 3D. You see, what's presented on the screen should work in relationship with the 3D. Even the clever foreshadowing from the previous films are quite blatant here, most of them just being premonitions that (like I said earlier) works in relationship with the 3D. The filmmakers have embraced the fact that their film is in 3D and uses all of the tricks in the book to use the 3D to add to the entertainment.

But there's a huge problem: There comes a point in the film where things get tedious, uninteresting, and predictable. Like I said, the death scenes are just so unoriginal and lazy, some even borrowed from the previous three films! Sure, there are some funny scenes and scenes in which the characters in the film are aware that they are in a film, like the SCREAM films. However, you just wish that the filmmakers could have done better from what they were given. You would be thinking, "This is all they can do?" by the end of the movie.

The characters in here are more like an excuse to kill them off later, which doesn't really bother me. It's apparent that this isn't a movie but more of a carnival ride, waiting to see who dies and how they will die. However, I would liked to have known more about two characters in the film that we barely get to see in the film before getting killed off in a gruesome way. The most fleshed out character is played by Mykelti Williamson, who also starred in FORREST GUMP. The main characters are sufficient enough in their role, usually just screaming or looking afraid. It's not that hard to do.

Another problem of in the movie was the pacing. It felt way too rushed with a running time of 75 minutes without credits. There's barely enough time to learn anything from characters or about characters. This is, by far, the weakest in the series because there's nothing new, which means it's going to be predictable. The only thing they have left is the anticipation of who's going to die and even that doesn't work here. Usually, in the FINAL DESTINATION films, there's suspense in how a person is going to die. In here, the deaths just appear out of nowhere. There's only the punchline and not the joke.

By the end of the film, you feel underwhelmed. There's nothing new here. You wished they could have done better. In fact, you KNOW they could have done better. If they were to make a fifth film (which I wouldn't mind), they better put some thought into it. If you're thinking about to watch this movie only ONCE, you should see it in its intended format: 3D AND in theaters. Other than that, there should be no other reason to wait for it on DVD or watch it in theaters in 2D. This is so unfortunate. The film started off big and ended in a whimper. 5/10