Final Destination was one of the smarter horror flicks of its time, backed by an awesomely original concept questioning the meaning of freak accidents. Final Destination 2 took this same concept, upped the gore, and made one of the goriest light-vibe horror movies in recent years. Final Destination 3 made one of the funniest and campiest wide release horror flicks lately. So if 1 is the smart one, 2 is the gory fun one and 3 is the campy fun one, then what does that make 4? The forgettable stupid one with crappy 3D effects.
Final Destination 4 (being called "The Final Destination" for reasons unknown, its certainly not a reboot) starts off with an accident at a racecar track. The theme started with the second of making the accident very involving and gory is continued, although to a ridiculous level. The car crash was believable, and while the roller coaster was a bit silly, at least it wasn't an exercise in stupidity. The racecar scene is just that. Stuff gets sliced and diced good, but it all feels ridiculously fake.
Of course, a random guy sees it happen in advance and causes a scene, causing people to leave early. Sure enough, stuff goes down as he predicted, but soon the people who got out are getting axed one by one. Can death be beat!? Damn straight it can't! Wouldn't make for a good chop-shop movie without it. And oh does stuff get chopped up good. But none of it is really that clever, and when it is, its quite stupid. The sequence of unfortunate events is taken to a new level with a car wash scene, which may be the silliest thing the series has ever done. Then a fence is used as a mincing device, which may be the most illogical. Oddly, some (such as one pool death) which seemed stupid and fake are based on real life occurrences, proving that truth is stranger than fiction.
It doesn't help that at least 80% of the deaths are given away in the trailer, but such is the crutch of this series. So, to make up for it, they threw in some 3D. So far, 3D has been used for kids films and horror flicks in wide release, and this is the first of the latter group I've seen. And its terrible. Rarely does it add to the fun, and mostly cheapens it by reducing the filmmakers to cheap gags.
The characters are broad-strokes as always. The only interesting one is Myketli Williamson's security guard George (yes, thats Bubba), but even he gets more than his share of dumb moments. The main character has little charisma, but hell, his girlfriend's hot, and thats the point of the movie isn't it? We get a token douchebag, a way-over-the-top racist and a milf who should have her kids taken away from her to round out the package, but its been more interesting before.
The movie also toys with mini-premonitions before each death, supposedly to make us guess. Usually they just give red herring, but mostly they're a waste of time. They also lead to the single worst movie ending of the year so far (by which I refer to the entire last half-hour).
FD4 is hardly comparable to the fun gorefests before it. Instead, its a trite and stupid movie with only mild camp factor. Its no wonder the opening credits is a recap of the first three movies, this new one seems to have run out of good ideas. Take a couple years and whip out the old notepad before the next one please.
Final Destination 4 (being called "The Final Destination" for reasons unknown, its certainly not a reboot) starts off with an accident at a racecar track. The theme started with the second of making the accident very involving and gory is continued, although to a ridiculous level. The car crash was believable, and while the roller coaster was a bit silly, at least it wasn't an exercise in stupidity. The racecar scene is just that. Stuff gets sliced and diced good, but it all feels ridiculously fake.
Of course, a random guy sees it happen in advance and causes a scene, causing people to leave early. Sure enough, stuff goes down as he predicted, but soon the people who got out are getting axed one by one. Can death be beat!? Damn straight it can't! Wouldn't make for a good chop-shop movie without it. And oh does stuff get chopped up good. But none of it is really that clever, and when it is, its quite stupid. The sequence of unfortunate events is taken to a new level with a car wash scene, which may be the silliest thing the series has ever done. Then a fence is used as a mincing device, which may be the most illogical. Oddly, some (such as one pool death) which seemed stupid and fake are based on real life occurrences, proving that truth is stranger than fiction.
It doesn't help that at least 80% of the deaths are given away in the trailer, but such is the crutch of this series. So, to make up for it, they threw in some 3D. So far, 3D has been used for kids films and horror flicks in wide release, and this is the first of the latter group I've seen. And its terrible. Rarely does it add to the fun, and mostly cheapens it by reducing the filmmakers to cheap gags.
The characters are broad-strokes as always. The only interesting one is Myketli Williamson's security guard George (yes, thats Bubba), but even he gets more than his share of dumb moments. The main character has little charisma, but hell, his girlfriend's hot, and thats the point of the movie isn't it? We get a token douchebag, a way-over-the-top racist and a milf who should have her kids taken away from her to round out the package, but its been more interesting before.
The movie also toys with mini-premonitions before each death, supposedly to make us guess. Usually they just give red herring, but mostly they're a waste of time. They also lead to the single worst movie ending of the year so far (by which I refer to the entire last half-hour).
FD4 is hardly comparable to the fun gorefests before it. Instead, its a trite and stupid movie with only mild camp factor. Its no wonder the opening credits is a recap of the first three movies, this new one seems to have run out of good ideas. Take a couple years and whip out the old notepad before the next one please.