Final Destination 5 (2011)
Directed by: Steven Quale
Written by: Eric Heisserer, Jeffrey Reddick
Starring: Arlen Escarpeta, Emma Bell, Nicholas D'Agosto
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLKR3GdIK80[/youtube]
Final Destination 5 (2011)
(15) Running time: 92 minutes
Director: Steven Quale
Writers: Eric Heisserer, Jeffrey Reddick
Starring: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Arien Escarpeta, Miles Fisher
Reviewed by: Matt Wavish, official HCF critic
Final Destination 5 arrives with a reputation of being the best one yet, a horror that makes full use of 3D as it should be, and supposedly breathes new life into the dying franchise after the truly horrendous number 4. I have actually been raving about this film myself, all the clips and trailers have looked incredible, and I have heard so many talk about the 3D actually working to the films advantage in a big way. Before we get down to the pro’s and con’s, make no mistake, if you are planning to watch this film, watch it in 3D. If you watch it in 2D then you may as well not bother watching it at all. 3D is a gimmick, and in Final Destination 5 it is the ONLY gimmick worth watching it for, everything else falls flat on it’s arse and becomes quite tedious.
In this ‘new’ plot, a coach load of employees from some sales office are heading off on a retreat: the boss is there, and so is the new manager of the actual workmen who work in the factory making their products. All this is meaningless plot drivel really, all you want to know is how they cheat death. As with all the Final Destination films, the characters are involved in an accident, which then turns out to be a premonition, which leads the guy who had the premonition (Sam Lawton played by D’Agosto) to frantically tell his friends to get out of harms way and a select few leave the endangered vehicle looking confused. The police turn up after the accident, baffled as to why a certain person told them to get off, then a pissed off Death starts killing them one by one while the Police begin to pint fingers. Sound familiar? All I say to that plot is a big fat “yawn! Come up with something new, or make a different film. Honestly, I appreciate that there is a limit to how far you can push the plot for these films, but this was like watching the first movie all over again, and the second, and the… well you get the idea!
This is a dull, boring, almost suicidal inducing watch. The police plot fizzles out into nothing, like the makers didn;t know what to do with them, the ending is painfully rushed, as in one minute a big showdown takes place, and within seconds its over, the characters are so dull that you end up wishing them dead, and this is not helped by some of the worst acting i have seen all year! The pace of the film, between deaths, is torture! This being Quale’s first film, I appreciate he’s still learning, and he does show some imaginative ideas and flare with his death scenes, but my God the bits that link everything together are just dreadful. A lack of music doesn’t help the slow moving story, and not one character really gets a chance to win your support. Each and every character here is merely another victim you cannot wait to see get killed in a new and exciting way, in 3D! There is a chap who cheats death twice, after a bizarre so-called twist means our cast must kill someone else to live, and this chap barely leaves an impression. Thats the issue, none of the cast are likeable, and you could not care less if they lived, and to be honest, I was waiting for them to die as its the deaths where this poor excuse of a film really shines.
The actual accident where they all should have died is superb. However, just before you get to that, the opening credits create a real sense of excitement, of a movie ‘event’ happening, could this really be the big horror classic of the year, the new and improved Final Destination, the film that uses 3D so well that others will have to follow in its shadows, Well, the opening credits, in an odd way, promise just that. However, fun as the opening credits are, they do feel out of place and a little forced, indicating that this will not be the classic we all expected. Brief character introductions and all of a sudden we are on the bridge and you are about to bare witness to quite possibly the greatest 3D set piece of the year, most certainly the best 3D horror moment of the year. As the bridge collapses and cars and bodies fall into the water and wires and rubble fall all over the place, I guarantee you will be on the edge of your seat in amazement. In fact, for a brief moment, you will find yourself claiming “3D horror doesn’t get any better than this!”, and it may well not! This terrific scene is almost worth the admission fee alone. Hats off to Quale for showing true spirit and real skill in the all important wow factor. This is a stunning scene that demands to be seen in 3D. Sadly, after this, things go badly down the pan…
All you want now is the next 3D death, and when they eventually do come, they are splendid and, at times, very inventive. However, its the bits in between that cause so much pain and suffering. Quale cannot hold down a story and make it interesting, it is clear all he was thinking about is how can I set up the next death, and the next death, when it comes, delivers on the goods. A superb gymnastic death is a shock to the system and tricks you into what the outcome will be, a laser eyeball surgery scene is graphic but met with one of the biggest mistakes in the movies this year, a massage parlour tricks you but the build up is actually embarrassing, and come the final few things just become so stupid and petty that you will stop caring. A final, bizarre twist which I assume was supposed to be clever will not summon any feelings of “holy shit what a twist!!”, it will simply make you think that this series is so desperate that it feels it can treat its audience like idiots and deliver such a pointless twist in order to try and make you believe you have watched something worthwhile. Maybe even give you something to talk about? I tell you what I’ll be talking about, how a simple four words spoken by an increasingly unsettling Tony Todd make the whole twist idea ludicrous: “I’ve seen this before” Shut up man, piss off and decide exactly what your character is supposed to be! Don’t get me wrong, I love Tony ‘Candyman’ Todd, ut is he working with Death, is he Death, or does he just like talking in a scary way?
Final Destination 5 is a mess, at a mere 90 minutes it feels rushed and yet dull as the colour grey. It’s lifeless, has no emotion, no real plot, characters you wish dead and deaths so good you start to feel that a simple DVD release of every death from the series, minus the silly banter in-between would actually be a much better experience. But wait, hold the phone! Whats that, during the credits?? Wow! We get to see every death from the entire series in 3D! Stay in your seats for this one folks because you suddenly get to see every death, re-made in 3D, with added blood coming right at you! Its a nice touch, although all it does really is remind you of how great Final Destination once was.
Rating: 
[pt-filmtitle]Final Destination 5[/pt-filmtitle]
Your comments don’t come as a surprise really, Matt. FD1 was fresh and brilliant. FD2 was along the same lines but still had plus points and learnt from the previous film, as well as including the surviving character, Ali Larter. Then it went downhill.
O dear, doesn’t sound very good at all, and though I don’t bother much with 3D, I think this is one movie where I will need to see it in that format to get much enjoyment out of it!
Brilliant review!! Bloomin awful film, not to mention the credits at the beginning that seemed to go on and on and on……….
Just seen it and didn’t mind it. Better I thought than 5 and maybe 2, a nice return to the more serious feel [which I think suits the series more] of 1 and 3.
Wow, you have been extremely negative. I have to strongly disagree. The franchise doesn’t set out to be anything serious. The whole plot of someone experiencing a premonition and cheating death is ridiculous in itself. But these films are basically entertainment and you can’t deny this entry in the series was entertaining. I felt the deaths were far more imaginative and innovative than any in the series yet. The Gymnastics scene has to be one of the best tension builder scene of the series. Also, every death piece was set up like that. They all had tension which was created perfectly. I feel you have unfairly judged this film. The twist at the end was great. I for one never seen it coming and was completely surprised and thrilled. Most average movie goers would have appreciated the effort to renew interest in the franchise as let’s face it, it’s far more entertaining than most of the recent horror franchises.
My advice to anyone considering watching this film is to go in with an open mind, your not watching a spectacle like Avatar but a film that is based on thrills and enjoyment which it certainly achieves. It’s my personal favourite of the series yet (Yes I mean that) Roll on Final Destination 6.
See, I loved the first film, the second was great and the third was a bit rubbish. The fourth was absolutly dreadful and I had really high hopes that Part 5 would be the best of the lot. I was REALLY excited gonig to the cinema to see it, the opening credits were bizarre but rather interesting (even if they did feel a bit out of place) and then the bridge scene, in my opinion, was one of the highlights of the series. Once the spectacle of the opening scene finished, the story got going and I just felt bored by it. I appreciate there is only so much you can do with the story, but if really just felt like watching the first film all over again, and the thing I really struggled with was the characters, they were painfully dull. In the majority of the other films, the charcters were fun to be around, this bunch I really could not have cared less about.
Yes, the deaths here were great, and the 3D really improved on them, and I especially liked the Gymnstics scene too, but I found myself sat, painfully waiting for the next death to wake me up from my ever growing state of falling asleep. I appreciate the twist, and what the makers tried to do to be clever, but it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth that they were trying to be clever and it didn’t work. If (SPOILERS) it had gone full circle, then how come The Coroner stated “I have seen this before” and why did the two suvivors not get off the plane straight away considering they had done exactly the same thing on the bus? And you can forget about Final Destination 6, the twist has pretty much sealed the film so that another cannot be made, unless someone comes up with an inventive way to move the story forward.
I think my main issue is that I really had high hopes for this, you can see all the news I reported on the film, I was incredibly excited and was telling everyone it was gonna be the best of the series. Sadly, I was let down and felt incredibly cheated.