Final Destination 5 (2011)

Final Destination 5

4/10

 

Starring
Nicholas D'Agosto
Emma Bell
Miles Fisher
Arlen Escarpeta
 

Directed by Steven Quale

 

Based on the same storyline as the previous prequels, Final Destination 5 adds nothing new to the already known tale of:

“Death’s revenge on the ones that made it.”

This movie coins the phrase “you’ve seen one, you’ve seen it all,” although the writers were more creative with the death scenes—more likely, the plot that leads to the death scenes. Still, Final Destination 5 lacks creativity and is all too predictable.

All other Final Destination movies (except Final Destination 2) always have a tragic end where death wins—including this one—giving us the idea that you can run as much as you want, but death is still gonna catch ya.

For me, if I get a premonition I’m about to die, I guess I’ll do the same as our leads and try to make a getaway.

Hey!

Why not prolong the inevitable?

Horror movies get to go on and on, like SAW, but I guess Final Destination was made for those who are mentally OKAY, who just want to see a quick, painless death, rather than the more gory, torture-to-death path that SAW provides. The acting in this movie was not bad, at least I give it that, the actors made it a lot easier for me to get through the predictability of the film.

Our main character here is Sam, who works at a paper company and was heading on a company retreat with his fellow co-workers. While on the bus, he has a premonition about the death of everyone in the bus on Vancouver’s Lions Gate Bridge. He sees his colleagues killed in the most horrific ways as they try to escape the collapsing bridge. Upon waking up and seeing events unfold just as in his dream, he causes a scene, gets off the bus, and takes his girlfriend with him. He’s chased by his best friend and his girl, then tagged along by a serious Black dude, the office perv, a discount pornstar, and someone who looks like they’d rather be grading papers.

The incident happens just as he saw it, but the lucky eight escape—and we then watch as death starts to take them out one by one.

One thing the director did well is the tease, he teases you each time you’re watching a death scene. You start to guess what exactly is going to send these characters to the next realm. As you’re watching, you see fire burning here, needles sticking out there, a screw loose somewhere, and you just can’t figure out which one’s going to do the deed. I give the movie that, even though the entire idea is predictable, the way the people died, was not, and that made the movie at least watchable for that reason.

Written by Eric Heisserer—who worked on A Nightmare on Elm Street remake, he adds a twist, the movie ends in a way, bring us back to how all these started.

The movie in total is enjoyable, but not the best movie you can see out there, and it can be missed and you will not feel like you have missed out on anything.