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So
how do you follow up
a movie in a
franchise that got
the title
The
Final Destination?
That’s easy, you
make a sequel!
Final
Destination 5
is yet another movie
in the franchise
that revolves around
a set of a few young
adults who avoid a
tragedy, only to
have death catch up
with them later.
Initially going into
this movie as
thinking of it as
complete and total
overkill, and asking
myself over and over
again ‘why?!’, I
found myself wrapped
up in this story a
little less than
halfway through and
pleasantly surprised
with the final
product.
Final
Destination 5
doesn’t feature
teenagers or college
kids like the other
movies in the
franchise. This
movie features a few
young adults that
work at or are
interns at a paper
company. The day
that the movie
starts on though is
not the normal day,
it’s the day of the
company retreat and
all of our players
in the game of death
are getting on a bus
to for some worker
bonding. But you
know the routine
here if you’ve seen
any of these movies…
On the bus, one of
them, Sam (Nicholas
D’Agosto) has a
vision of everybody
dying brutal deaths.
When he wakes up his
vision starts to
come true and he
begins to freak out
and gets off the
bus. When he gets
off the bus a few
follow him and as
soon as they’re safe
the bridge that the
bus was on collapses
and everybody dies.
You also know the
routine from here…
the survivors
shouldn’t have
survived and they
cheated death. So
now, death is after
them. The entity
mouse traps the
remaining survivors
and intricately
kills them one by
one until well…
until there’s no one
left. You want to
root for someone to
survive, but you
know that’s not
happening.
The
Final Destination
wasn’t great but it
wasn’t terrible. I
questioned why they
made another one at
the time and I still
do to an extent. I
really wondered why
they put money into
Final
Destination 5
and
made yet another
movie in the
franchise. But I got
past that pretty
fast once I was
watching this movie.
The special effects
were terrific, the
cast was hit or miss
in spots but mostly
good when you look
at the overall
collection, and they
embrace the
silliness of it all
better than any of
the sequels before
it. It’s funny that
their going on a
retreat and they all
work in the same
building. It’s
funnier that they
all work at a paper
company (like
The
Office.)
Then it’s really
cool how they give
some pretty obvious
nods to the original
movie and make it a
part of everything.
That’s all that I’ll
say because I want
to leave some
surprises in there,
but just know that
out of all of the
Final
Destination
sequels that this
probably the only
one worth watching.
Special Features on
this Blu-ray aren’t
plentiful, but
what’s there is
cool. There are a
couple of split
screen scenes
including the bus on
the bridge scene and
the airplane scene.
Both of those are
really cool because
they show the
finished product on
the bottom screen
and then they show a
production diary on
the top screen. The
top screen is really
cool to watch to see
how they made
everything work with
effects and all of
the other bells and
whistles. There’s
also a cool five
minute making-of
featurette and some
alternate death
scenes. That
making-of featurette
is cool to watch but
the deleted scenes
aren’t great. It’s
important to watch
the special features
after you watch the
movie and not
before. Keep that in
mind.
Final
Destination 5
is leaps and bounds
better than
The
Final Destination.
The production
values and the
acting are loads
better and the
direction from first
timer Steven Quale
is above
serviceable. It’s
still the movie that
we’ve seen four
times before but
it’s going to find a
niche audience.
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