Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Death is coming for you and he thinks like Rube Goldberg...
In the final analysis "Final Destination" benefits from a pair of veterans from "The X-Files," director James Wong and co-writer Glen Morgan, and an extremely helpful initial test screening (see the nice little feature on the DVD with regards to the latter). This film is one of the bloodiest splatter flicks I have seen in some time (it cannot be considered a slasher flick because there is no slasher and I have to add a caveat in that I have not been watching as many films in this genre as was my wont in my younger days). But rather than focusing on the blood and gore you are distracted by the ingenious ways the dead teenagers in this movie end up becoming dead. There is something to said for any movie that finds Rube Goldberg to be a creative inspiration.Once upon a time there was a class of high school students who were going to take a class trip to Paris. Before the plane takes off Alex (Devon Sawa) has a terrifying vision of the plane exploding. When he wakes up a couple of things from his vision immediately come true and he starts yelling the plane is going to explode. There is a big commotion and Alex, five other students and a teacher, end up getting kicked off the plane. The good news, relatively speaking, is that the plane does indeed explode and their lives have been spared. The bad news, which takes up the remainder of the film, is that having cheated Death the grim reaper wants to settle accounts. Once again, Alex is ahead of the loop on this one and the question is whether he can convince the rest of the group of what is going on and figure out what to do to stop it from happening before the final credits. "Final Destination" is a film where the characters are caught up with who is going to die next while the audience is waiting to find out how. Not "how" as in what handy implement will Jason find in some "Friday the 13th" movie but more in the tradition of Vincent Price's "Dr. Phibes" films. But the film does not overplay its hand in this respect and mixes long intricate mousetrap scenarios with startling sudden staccato scenes as well. Bottom line: this is a splatter flick that delivers on the basis of brains as well as blood. This is not to say that the movie is without its flaws, the most notable of which is that parallel to TWA Flight 800, which also involved students on a flight to Paris. Was there really no one involved in the making of this movie that did not notice this was in extremely bad taste and totally unnecessary? It could have been any other city on the planet and it did not even have to be on the far side of the ocean. However, I was wondering why Alex did not explain the two points that determined the line of logic that made him want to get off of that airplane. Not that anybody would have believed him, but at least it was a rationale explanation for his behavior. Also, the first post-plane death in the film is overt in a way that is not true about any of the other deaths (i.e., the blue liquid) and seems rather out of place in retrospect. A sequel to "Final Destination" is currently in movie theaters but while they can certainly replicate the Rube Goldberg inspired death sequences, rehashing the metaphysical questions posed by the dilemma confronting these characters is going to be problematic (if their "solution" is any good, why did it not occur to Alex?). But then sequels in this genre are always about making more money. The exception that proves the rule is "Scream 2," which was about playing with an audience's mind. "Final Destination" is about using your mind to make a movie. People who do not like splatter flicks may well like this one, which is a neat trick if you can pull it off.
Rating: - A very good and tense movie!
You can tell right away that Final Destination is a dead teenager movie. Nothing wrong with that, but most nowadays are turning out to be flops. But Final Destination is a real breath of fresh air. Instead of your typical guy-in-mask slasher, Final Destination turns out to be very creative and interesting. In fact, this is one of my favorite horror films of all time!The opening credits and musical score set a perfect mood for the film, and soon to follow is the best and scariest plane crash scene ever filmed in my opinion. From there on, a group of teens and one adult who left the plane learn that they can't cheat death. Death comes back for them all in a series of deadly accidents. Not only is this a very interesting plot to follow, it is executed quite well. Since everyone is supposed to know this when seeing the movie, it keeps a certain amount of tension that keeps you on the edge of your seat saying "oh god here it comes....," even if you don't know when death is coming. It usually hits you by surprise with is elaborate Rube Goldberg death scenes. I really love this film. The death plot keeps on twisting and becoming more complex as Alex (the main character) makes more discoveries about "death's plan." This doesn't have to be just a teen movie - it can appeal to adults as well as science fiction buffs with its awesome and creative plot.
Rating:  - Exciting and Fast-Paced Thriller
I tend to like a lot of high-brow dramas and foreign films, but I also enjoy a good, exciting thriller. What sets Final Destination above so many high school-set horror films is its original premise. The killer is not some deranged madman or...cheerleader, but Death itself. Another good thing is the production values. The quality of the special effects, the locations and even the actors (they aren't Olivier, but they're believable) is pretty high for this kind of film. The writers and director (Morgan, Reddick and Wong) pay great attention to detail and are good at building tension in the story. Watching the bathroom scene puts my nerves so much on edge that I cannot watch the entire thing with my eyes open. The DVD is nice because it shows the alternate ending, and discusses the screening and previewing process. This is just a fun, but scary movie to watch at home with your folks or some friends. I've seen it a couple of times. My only real complaint about it is the character of Clear Rivers, portrayed by Ali Larter. She came off as kind of cold and maybe creepy. I'm not sure what the deal was with that; I'll have to listen to the director's commentary one of these days.
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