Final Destination (2000)
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Final Destination Movie Review
Final Destination is a 2000 supernatural horror film directed by James Wong and starring Devon Sawa. It’s a very underrated horror flick.
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“In death there are no accidents,
no coincidences, no mishaps, and no escapes“
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After getting a premonition about a plane crash on his school trip, Alex, a student saves a few of his classmates. However, their situation gets complicated when death starts chasing them. This movie was written and directed by James Wong, a writer of ‘The X-Files’ fame. And the movie surely has that high-concept storytelling to it. It received unreasonably harsh reviews back when it was first released, but it became a cult film that spawned an entire franchise.
Final Destination has a concept that is actually quite original for the time. This guy seeing the deaths of his classmates and himself and trying to prevent them led to such a fun movie that is both intense and also surprisingly silly and humorous. The mixture between the two tones was most obviously influenced by ‘Scream’, and I would say that it rivaled most of the sequels from that particular franchise in terms of quality.
The film also benefits from a cast of characters that are actually better developed and more fun than your average cast of teenagers. The main trio that eventually survived was particularly fun and I really liked their interplay. It helps that these actors looked like adolescents, so they were quite believable in their roles. The highlight was clearly Devon Sawa. He was so charismatic, memorable and surprisingly good throughout this movie and he made for one of the better horror heroes of the time. The fact that we got a male hero for once was refreshing.
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Going into this first movie in the franchise, I’d expected a lot of silliness and trashiness. I got the former, but not the latter. Yes, there were so many silly and campy scenes here, especially in the later half. The film’s death scenes, while obviously ingeniously approached and quite creative, were also shot in such a ridiculous and theatrical manner that I was more amused than scared by them. The humor in this movie was surprisingly strong, but it did lessen the impact of suspense quite a bit.
But the first half is where the film operated in an unexpectedly serious manner, functioning more as a quality suspense ride than some dumb blockbuster fare. This is where the ‘X-Files’ and ‘Twilight Zone’ influences were most abundant. The plane crash sequence was so well realized and instantly iconic while the other death scenes were sillier, but definitely highly memorable and creative. Some of the dialogue is stupid, but that fitted the teenage cast quite well. The cinematography, score and effects were all solid and the movie was immensely entertaining from beginning to end. It really did not deserve all that hate from the snobbish critics.
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The first Final Destination movie is actually quite solid. This is one of the most underrated horror movies of its era, one that was needlessly criticized by reviewers, but is now a cult film that spawned an entire franchise. Yes, the second half is silly and even campy in its humorous approach. But the first half is genuinely suspenseful, deftly executing its intriguing high-concept idea. Devon Sawa was quite charismatic in the main role and the death scenes are all super creative and fun. This movie is obviously far from great, but it’s so damn fun that it’s almost impossible not to at least be entertained by it.
My Rating – 3.5
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