My guess is that they could churn out a few more of these and keep the kills coming but I really hope this is the last of the series as they did a pretty good job of wrapping it all up. In the interest of full disclosure I should admit that I went ahead and skipped Final Destination 4 but from what I’ve heard I haven’t missed much.
You already know the plot of the film but this time around the characters have cheated death by surviving a bridge collapse... and it looked great. The opening sequence ranks up there with the car pile-up from Final Destination 2 – which was also done very well.
It’s pretty obvious from the start of FD5 that the filmmakers were trying to channel some of that energy that made the original film so popular in the first place. Let’s face it we all know we go to see the film for the kills and not the story – but that doesn’t mean we want them to just disregard the story completely. So it was good to find the makings of a plot strewn throughout the 3D blood and guts that was FD5. Yeah, they went a little heavy on some of the gore and I’m no real fan of that but these filmmakers know who their audience is and they cater to them extremely well. One thing that’s always made these films interesting to me aside from the kills is the actual lead-up. In almost all instances the tension before each time death caught up with a character caused more squirming and gasps from the audience than the actual kills themselves. Except for the guts-on-the-sailboat bit, that one came out of nowhere.
Early on in the film I was a little concerned with some of the performances and had already begun to prepare myself for a clock-watching marathon. I was relieved when they pulled it together and were able to breathe just enough life into the story to keep you going in between the “good parts”.
I'm sure you've heard by now about the twist at the end. There was a lot of grumbling from the audience when it happened but I for one thought it was great. If the filmmakers were going for one of those "let's watch it again to see if we can tell" effects I think they might have succeeded. Although I'm sure I'll be waiting for the DVD release to enjoy that second screening.
