FINAL DESTINATION 5 (18)
Release Date: 25 August 2011
Running Time: 92 minutes
Distributor: Warner Bros Pictures, New Line Cinema
Director: Steven Quale
Screenplay: Eric Heisserer
Starring: Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, P.J. Byrne, Ellen Wroe, Tony Todd
Plot: In Final Destination 5, Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and is unleashed after one man's premonition saves a group of coworkers from a terrifying suspension bridge collapse. But this group of unsuspecting souls was never supposed to survive, and, in a terrifying race against time, the ill-fated group frantically tries to discover a way to escape Death's sinister agenda.
Review: Final Destination franchise is an aging horror film property that has itself become a victim of it's own death cheating game. We have already seen people died from airplane freak mid-air accident, bizarre road accident, roller coaster accident and Nascar accident; so whats next installed for you? The new installment in the 11-years old popular franchise that follows what happen next for a group of lucky survivors only to succumb to the creepy death one by one is no longer a horror experience that many is excited for. Chances are it is just another cycle of blood splashing spree that may not offer anything new. Well, that chances seems pretty much summarize the first feel after the movie. So what's next?
The film opens up with co-workers gathering together for a company retreat. The group includes Sam Lawton (Nicholas D'Agosto), who dreams of an apprenticeship in Paris, his best friend Peter (Miles Fisher), Peter's girlfriend Candice (Ellen Wroe), and her rival Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood). Along for the trip are Molly Harper (Emma Bell), who breaks up with Sam just before the trip, Peter's co-workers Isaac (P.J. Byrne) and Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta), and their boss Dennis Lapman (David Koechner).
While on the bus, Sam experiences a vision of a deadly bridge collapse when their bus is still on it. Molly is the only person to safe from all the disaster, but Sam and the others failed to make it safe. Shortly thereafter, things begin to happen just like in the vision, leading Sam to take Molly and get off the bus. Peter, Candice, Olivia, Nathan, Isaac, and Dennis follow. The bridge collapses as Sam foresaw, but this time he and his friends are spared.
Let's analyze. Final Destination 5 is strictly only for people who enjoys watching young people died in freaky ways, this time with the additional "moderately-eye-popping" 3D to accompany the death by splashing fragments of glass to your face. Oh, how many time have you died already? In case you do still feel or think that this one is still having fresh blood-monger story to satisfy yourself, then this is absolutely for you. If you are not, Final Destination 5 is just another Final Destination movie and it provides no fresh element into the already-familiar plot. A few survivors (whom are still and must be some youngster) from a freak of "supernatural" accident that eventually realized they can't cheat the death, in the whole movie you see them paying the price of cheating by dying one-by-one in a *SPOILER - chronological order*. "It can't be a coincidence" said one of the cop.
If Final Destination does not give in anything new on how Death must seek the lucky ones, the setups to the death of these peoples are "WOW" executed in a great way. Yes, the characters like a hot 4-eyes chick, Tom Cruise-look alike, an American black who has issues with his co-workers and even a pervert fatty are killed in a brilliant way. The grand accident on the suspension bridge itself looks realistic and aesthetically better than the rest in the franchise because it involves stuffs you always encounter in life. Bridge, bus and construction site are stuffs so common that using them to create a deathly disaster seems all fine. Then the setup of death for each character is also more realistic because you don't see any screws been unscrew for no reason; as like there is someone unscrewing it through remote control in the previous installment! Then, the circumstances of freak accident are either triggered by own bad mouth, superstitious or toying around your most common phobias.
Now that the Death is earning itself some credit for making this better than most of the installment in the franchise, the movie is pretty much ruined by a cliche and predictable casts's performances. With an assembly of unknown casts that include a different version of Tom Cruise, this is pretty much expectable. The duly performance is enough to give you a reason not to care so much with the characters and will not give not even a slight sympathy to them. Then, death may come pretty unexpected and totally out of guard, but you still have the mood to give the death character a applause for dying beautifully.
3D is not so "eye-popping" after all and it is still suffering from the same issue of dimness. Then, you may enjoy yourself getting splashed with broken glasses as the scissors, hammers and poky steels been aim for you. After all, 3D is just a gimmick and I do hope you can survive the journey. Ouch, didn't I asked you how many times you have been death?
At the end of the day, Final Destination 5 is just another Final Destination movie but it marks decent return of form from lifeless fourth adventure. It looks better, people died much better in this one and more realistic to our common encounters. There is no guarantee that this will be the last but I do hope so. Nevertheless, the morale of the story today are "Don't mock the Buddha before going for acupuncture session" and "Just forget about lasik surgery - glasses are cool too".
THE RATING:
Story: 2.5
Casts: 3.0
Cinematography: 3.5
Effects: 3.5
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 11.8/20.0
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