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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 436690" data-attributes="member: 23">The Final Destination (2009) <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BNzY1NmU2MDgtMDQxNC00MTQ4LTgxMWQtYWNkOWMyZWFlODZiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMjk0NjI%40._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=5c3ddb7aa53a971e62f54cb51ab3f8a7d52520110969f32b0f1f8d65e85691c1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 605px" />This was really a cynical box-ticking exercise. When I rewatched the first three films back in 2022, this one was unavailable, so I skipped to a first-time watch of the fifth film. While I haven't particularly felt I was missing much, the completist in me was aware of a gap.Even though I saw the first film, and I think the first couple of sequels, in the cinema, the poster for this film feels like the one that I remember seeing more than others on billboards and the side of buses. I suppose it was heavily-promoted. While I haven't read much about the film, the little I'd seen and heard suggested this was the weakest of the franchise. Expectations were low because of this and I'm glad they were because I wasn't as disappointed as I could have been.I wasn't expecting sophistication or nuance, but I probably could have been more prepared for the gimmicky direction to make the most of the 3D format. Watching in standard two dimensions it's just distracting. Burst tyres, shrapnel and explosions invariably fly out towards the screen - occasionally effectively so, but mostly it just feels samey. And of course there's a gratuitous sex scene with 3D tits jiggling.Death sequences have an equally sledgehammer approach. There's the usual random stuff all happening at once but this time mostly meaningless. They even try for another blink-and-you'll-miss-it instant shocker à la Terry in the original. It doesn't work.The premonitions, too, are clunky. This is established very early on when - after the initial premonition - the precognitive character begins pointing out every single detail before it happens. This instantly takes away any question of whether or not the character is imagining things or simply experiencing déjà vu (this is a failing of most - perhaps all - of the sequels). There's no sense of isolation for the character, who instantly has his own little Scooby gang to help him work things out. Naturally, they almost instantly read about Flight 180, but the only real connection is a very poorly mocked up article printed off by a character. I will give the film credit for getting me with a second premonition sequence that I accepted in the context of the story.I realise I keep referring to "the character", which is telling when it comes to the level of characterisation in this film. 3D the action may be, but the same cannot be said for the characters or actors. Names are incidental and I didn't really pick any up. They're mostly glorified extras, reenacting the franchise's past glories (the only face I knew was One Tree Hill's Shantel VanSanten, but watching in this post-2017 era I struggled to get past how similar her facial features are to those of Meghan Markle). The initial tragedy has little emotional resonance for the characters, barring the perfunctory lines about trying to move on with their lives or whatever. Performances fall mostly into the range of workaday but this isn't art and the writing hardly invites depth. Most of the core crew seem defined by a single characteristic ("the racist redneck", "the one who constantly wants to get laid", "the thoughtful one") but even this only really applies to the male characters. The women are almost indistinguishable from one another (especially the dark-haired friend and the dark-haired mother. They even cleared their throats in identically irritating pitches).The positive to come from the lack of character is that there isn't a character who irks as much as, say, FD1's Carter, or FD5's Peter.Despite the ambition of the concept, the film feels cheaper than most in the series, which might be down to the dull direction (incidentally, director David R. Ellis would himself die in mysteriously unexplained circumstances a few years after this).Funnily enough, the first season was broadcast simultaneously across the whole ITV network and I think it performed decently. Then they gave up and went back to the regional variations with Season Two, which is why I never ended up watching it. Either it wasn't shown in my region, or it was shown much later and tucked away somewhere where it couldn't be found.CPW is another where I followed the first season and then somehow missed the second, apart from stumbling upon a couple of scenes several years later (it looked as though it had become too shallow and bonkers even for me).</blockquote>

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