Blu-Ray Review: ‘The Final Destination’ Succeeds in Making Death Boring

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CHICAGO – In Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games,” a couple and their young son are subjected to a night of physical and psychological torture. Their captors are two smirking psychopaths who only aim to please their thrill-seeking audience. The funny thing about “Games” is that it spares viewers from enjoying any explicit violence, forcing them to feel the characters’ excruciating suffering instead.

It’s a diabolical punishment rather than an entertainment, and many moviegoers may fail to see the point of it. Yet when faced with a tasteless exercise like “Final Destination,” Haneke’s film starts to make sense. This thoroughly execrable horror franchise began in 2000, with a first entry that was no better or worse than those that followed. That’s because every “Final Destination” is exactly the same, from its opening premonition to its final plot twist. The characters are designed to be as one-dimensional as possible, allowing viewers to take pleasure in rooting for their imminent death.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 1.5/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 1.5/5.0

“The Final Destination” is the awkwardly titled fourth entry in the series, and the first one released in 3-D. Consumers may be lured into purchasing this disc simply to experience a 3-D film on Blu-ray. Yet the two pairs of glasses provided in the film’s limited time edition are cheap anaglyph filters that produce a strobing effect guaranteed to induce headaches. Unlike the immersive use of 3-D in films such as “Avatar,” “Final Destination” is in the old-school tradition of “poke-you-in-the-eye” effects that are initially fun, yet quickly grow tedious.

Bobby Campo tries to pull his girlfriend away from certain doom in David R. Ellis’s The Final Destination.
Bobby Campo tries to pull his girlfriend away from certain doom in David R. Ellis’s The Final Destination.
Photo credit: New Line Home Entertainment

Director David R. Ellis seems to think that “suspense” and “character development” are little more than idle time fillers between death scenes. Anyone who has seen the previous installments will find nothing new here: a group of friends (Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano and Haley Webb) survive a terrible disaster, thanks to one of their premonitions. Yet since they have violated Death’s “plan,” they are hunted down by a bloodthirsty supernatural force that repeatedly sets off Rube Goldberg-style death traps. It’s all one big sick joke, with characters speaking in heightened declarative tones (“I’m Not Going To Die Today!”) right before getting offed.

The Final Destination was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on January 5th, 2010.
The Final Destination was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on January 5th, 2010.
Photo credit: New Line Home Entertainment

It’s hilarious how the characters immediately accept the film’s ludicrous structure, as they pile into a room to discuss, “Who’s next?” Like many brainless franchises and TV shows, the plot functions simply to string the audience along, moving at a speed determined to mask its inherent emptiness. There are plenty of gory deaths, yet none of them are remotely scary or convincing, thanks to uniformly cartoonish special effects. There’s no sequence as disgusting as the tanning salon mishap in “Final Destination 3,” though there is one moment that at least inspires a laugh. A racist (referred to as “the racist”) sets out to burn a cross on the lawn of a black security guard. He ends up getting caught on fire and dragged down the street by his truck, while his radio plays, “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” Well, at least Death is all for civil rights.

The “Final Destination” series is meant to be harmless entertainment for slack-jaws, but its trivialization of mortality is crass and vulgar, not to mention disturbing. It’s my sincere hope that this will be the final “Destination,” and that the majority of moviegoers have had quite enough of these funny games.

“The Final Destination” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 2.4:1 aspect ratio), accompanied by English and Spanish audio tracks, and comes with an additional disc doubling as a standard definition DVD and a digital copy of the 2D Version. Special features include the pre-visualizations and storyboards for two key sequences, seven minutes of extra deaths, three minutes of alternate endings and two minutes of over-hyped footage from the upcoming “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake. There’s also a mildly diverting deconstruction of the film’s elaborate death scenes, featuring laughable insights from the cast. Webb says, “Seeing me actually dead is pretty cool.”

‘The Final Destination’ is released by New Line Home Entertainment and stars Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano, Haley Webb and Mykelti Williamson. It was written by Eric Bress and directed by David R. Ellis. It was released on January 5th, 2010. It is rated R.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Matt Fagerholm

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

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