Final Destination 5: Movie Review

Directed by Steven Quale
Running Time: 95 minutes (1h, 35 mins).
Rated R (for strong violence/gruesome accidents, and some language).
Distributor: Warner Bros. (New Line).

Oh yes, horror fans. Final Destination is back for a fifth installment and this time, the game has changed. At least, that's what they say. This review will be shorter than the usual reviews I write, mainly because the story doesn't really need to be explained. However, if you're one who's never seen a Final Destination movie and don't know how they work, you should probably watch the first four films or read my So Far... segment on the film series. In fact, I'm just gonna lay this out on whoever's reading this: everyone dies. It's not really a spoiler, it happens in all four films.

Going into this one, I was a little worried that this fifth film would be a ball full of dog crap, judging that The Final Destination was. That one was so lazy and stupid and was the worst of the series. I was angered that the person who wrote it obviously wasn't creative enough to make this fun like the others and all the characters didn't feel real. Then again, no character in any of the films felt real, but at least they had some redeeming qualities. That one had none. Okay, now I'm talking about the past. Now, let me head back to the present. Final Destination 5 gets the franchise back into place. Yeah, it's got lots of blood and guts flying all over the place (in 3D none the less), but that's why we see these movies. The deaths are cool, clever and very creative, especially the collapsing bridge scene. It's one of the best opening scenes in the series since the second film's highway pile-up. It's well-directed and well crafted. The 3D is pretty impressive. Like I said, there's blood and guts all over the place. At some points, I even cringed. The director here is Steven Quale, who's just one of James Cameron's right-hand men, which is good, because Quale knows how to use the 3D technology well. He did work with Cameron on Avatar.

The acting in this one is much better, thanks to some clever dialogue and a few jokes in between. Nicholas D'Agosto does a pretty good job as the guy who has the vision. The other survivors are good as well. I don't feel like naming the rest of the actors, except for Tony Todd, who's thankfully back after being AWOL from numbers three and four. Oh, and David Koechner. He's always hilarious and judging by this film, I hope he brings some more laughs when he's in Piranha 3DD.  He finds many ways of telling the survivors that you can't cheat death. One of the best things about it though is the big twist when it's close to the end of the film. Due to spoilers, I can't say what it is, which is ironic because earlier in this review, I already mentioned that everybody dies. But why we watch the movies is to find out how they die. I also like the musical score composed by Brian Tyler. He composed the previous one, which was one of the savings graces about that film, other than some of the deaths and 3D effects. I also liked how this one had a good use of Kansas' famous song, Dust in the Wind, because all what the survivors will be by the time the movie's over is, well, dust in the wind.

Wow, I guess this review wasn't as short as I thought I would write it. You just read why I thought this film was an improvement over the last one, so I'll just cut to the chase. *** (3 stars). That's all.