The Problem with Final Destination 4

As an original Final Destination fan, I was severely disappointed in this movie. Many movies goers waited all summer to be, well…disappointed.

Not all was lost when Final Destination 4 came out. The 3D experience and graphics was exciting; even the previews were pretty cool. Except for the sad teenagers at the ticket counter who couldn’t get into the movies (it was Rated R), the excitement for the movie ran pretty high.

The plot itself wasn’t so bad - big crash, people get saved, now one by one people start dying. What excited the audience the most was the 3D. Objects being flown at your face seeming very real have a way of making people jump out of their seats. The gruesome way people died from the explosion and the deaths afterwards were just the icing on the cake. So what went wrong?

Looking back at history of the franchise, two directors are behind these films. According to IMBD, James Wong and David R. Ellis took turns directing these films. The original and 2006 Final Destinations was directed by James Wong, while David R Ellis directed the sequel and the current Final Destination. Jeffery Reddick wrote the characters and the story in the 2000 film. The writers changed throughout the years. This is obvious.

Almost 10 years later, this version mimicked the first film. Was that what they were going for? If it was it may not have been the best idea. If I wanted to watch the original film then I would have. The problem with this film was the holes and the “come on!” reactions.

Just brief warnings ahead, there are spoilers ahead of this piece. For instance, everyone runs out and there is an explosion, when they have the memorial service there is a family that was saved because of the main character’s, which was played by Bobby Campo, premonition. The mother died but the family was never seen or mentioned afterwards. Shouldn’t they have been on the “list” too? They specifically went up to the character to thank him for saving their lives, then only one out of the four survive?

Then what was up with the way some of the characters died or were supposed to die? Ok, a truck dragging a burning racist down the street? Part two of someone getting killed by the bus. The one that killed me was the girl almost dying at the car wash! THE CAR WASH! The deaths by the pool and the escalator were just ridiculous! The original and previous films went to the extremes to kill people but somewhere in your mind you thought, it could have happened. The random sex scene was completely unnecessary - what is this Jason?

What made the film worse was the constant panic-to-happy moments. If I tried to “kill myself all day” because I would prefer to be with my family who already died, why am I happy within minutes of some random teenagers who broke into my house to tell me I’m going to live? In the previous movies, the characters stayed panicked until they were sure of things. There was no walking up to someone telling them they were going to die just like that. This movie had the characters ready to celebrate all the time.

Bottom line is the movie just was not believable. The writers obviously were running out of ideas. What saved the movie was the 3D. No one could argue that the 3D wasn’t cool. The skeletons, flying objects, screws and all! That made the extra $3 for the movie worth it. As for the rest, I can’t say it had my thumbs up. However, it did provide me with something to do on my weekend off, I could have found something better but I’m a fan, hell I wouldn’t have missed it.