Decent Sequel

Rating: Null/10 (14 March 2008)

Final Destination 2 (2003)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
It's vacation time so Kimberly (A.J. Cook) decides to take a trip to Florida with three of her friends. While on the highway Kimberly has a premonition of a deadly car accident, which will kill several people including herself and her three friends. Thrown into a state of shock Kimberly refuses to drive any further and within the matter of seconds a chain reaction wreck takes place and the entire road is filled with fire and death.
Kimberly's friends are killed but she's saved due to Officer Burke (Michael Landes) who pulls her from death right before it would have taken place. Although her friends are dead Kimberly is a hero because she saved the life of everyone behind her on the road. However by doing this she has altered the plans of Death who will have to go back and fix things by killing those who were saved. Together Kimberly and Burke must find a way to save the others and destroy Death before it can take its toll.
As with the case of many cash-hungry sequels, if you've seen the first film then you pretty much know what to expect out of this one. The story lines are pretty much the exact same and the movie really doesn't try to hide the fact that it's very unoriginal due to it being basically a remake more than a sequel. However, like the first film this one here has a very intriguing story dealing with cheating death that at least makes it watchable throughout. Just because the story is interesting doesn't mean anything else works though.
What I really don't understand about this film is the graphic and over-the-top gore, which fills the screen every time it comes for someone to die. I'm a die-hard horror fan and gore has always played an important part in various slashers but Final Destination 2 isn't a mindless slasher but a wannabe intelligent film that tries to be a serious film. The director throws tender moments at us along with a lot a funny moments yet at the same time we get very graphic violence, which serves no purpose at all and comes off very mean and cold.
Within the short running time we get heads ripped off, eyes poked out, explosions, torture, bodies ripped in several pieces as well as young kids being killed. All of this leaves nothing to the imagination and at first its rather shocking but before long you'll be rolling your eyes and asking yourself what's the point to all of this. The further the movie goes the more gore is thrown at us, which eventually becomes laughable and takes away what the film was trying to accomplish. Gore is never scary and it's not a good idea to use it when trying to make suspense or fear.
Final Destination 2, outside the useless and tasteless violence is of course very stupid but in my opinion it's everything a Hollywood film is today. While watching the thing you might find yourself having a good time but three minutes after the credits role the movie is all but forgotten and you really can't remember too much about what you've just seen. I'm fairly certain had this film been made thirty-years ago some small time director would have made a very intelligent film about Death. This film however is too worried about being hip to a younger crowd that it's virtually pointless. As for the CGI, in case producers don't know, there's a guy named Tom Savini out there that could have done many of the death scenes a lot better and made them actually look real.