I feel like the writers behind Final Destination 5 just decided that since four other films had been made in the series, nothing was off limits. What audiences then received was a muddled, complicated, corny mess that was somehow miles ahead of the last couple films in the series.

I find that people only watch Final Destination for the death scenes. The plot and the characters don’t really matter much at all. You know they’re going to die - you saw it happen, and know that no other characters have avoided it before. You can just shut your eyes and hope that the film is fun and the deaths are gory and ridiculous. The first couple films feature some of the coolest deaths I’ve seen in horror films (the plane crash, the highway sequence, getting hit by a bus, the elevator, etc). This was fascinating to first watch because you were brought along for the ride, and understand the logic of cheating death was something new and exciting.

Something happened along the way where the writing kept trying to one-up itself and we were left with “The Final Destination”, which was a gratuitous use of 3D technology that seemed forced and pushed the series into that corny horror sub-genre that didn’t take itself seriously any more. I lost interest and didn’t expect to be entertained if the series had continued.

I have to admit that this new film is leaps ahead of its previous iteration, but only by how absolutely ridiculous the new deaths are. No characters are likeable, the plot is incredibly weak (it revisits the exact same motivations we’ve seen four times before - we get it, you have to cheat death), and the acting is horrible. The deaths are interesting because they actually had me laughing out loud most of the time. The leaps that the writers have gone to to produce a film this insane is beyond my comprehension.

It’s worth checking out if you like the other instalments; although you already know what you’re getting. If for nothing else, watch it for the twist ending, which I actually thought was integrated very intelligently. 

Buy it on Amazon.ca:
Final Destination 5 - DVD
Final Destination 5  [Blu-ray]
Final Destination 5 3D Combo Pack [Blu-ray]
Final Destination on Amazon.ca

Final Destination is a tricky series of films. While the idea of being able to see and prevent the deaths of those around you has always been something that fascinated me, the first two film’s execution of these deaths in creative and unstoppable ways was really interesting and creative. I stopped caring about the “Final Destination” series after the second iteration however, and found that another new cast of stereotypical non-believers of the premonitions to be just plain annoying.

This is now the fourth installment of the series, and the once fascinating and creative deaths that had be intrigued at first have turned into laughable, poorly executed special effect-ridden disasters. It was bad enough that the tagline was “Death saved the best for 3D” - which implied that the only reason anyone would ever want to watch this film was for the kitschy aesthetics portrayed in a third dimension. When renting this film, we didn’t have an opportunity to watch it in 3D, which could have made the terrible acting, poorly executed plot, and awful script a tad more bearable knowing that we at least had a chance to see the film in it’s intended format. Sure, you can see the knives “coming at you” through the screen, but it seemed like stretch to imagine that this film NEEDED to exist.

Hopefully they make good on their promise, and make this The FINAL Destination.