holds itself beside the original

Rating: 7/10 (24 April 2006)

Kimberly and her friends are taking a road trip to Datona. The news reports that it is one year later from the airplane incident where Alex had a vision of a plane exploding. While waiting on an on-ramp to the freeway, Kimberly has a premonition of a massive highway crash. After she stops people for dying in the pile up, the 'survivors' have cheated death. Kimberly believes that the recurrence of this cheat to death, means that death is now coming to take them.
Final Destination 2 doesn't really deviate from the first movie. A group of people cheat death, then death comes after them one by one. Though screenwriters Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber have changed things around, changing death tactics and order in which people go, so this doesn't end up as a cut and copy; like so many sequels do.
Like Final Destination, Final Destination 2 isn't that great of a film. The acting again isn't great, nor is the dialog of the script. Taking over from James Wong, David R. Ellis direction is just a notch better; making the film look more slick and glossy; though Wong's grittier look help the suspense more. What made the first film so interesting were the elaborative death scenes. Ellis has increased the violence, and the death sequences are even more meticulously played out. The opening sequence of the car crashes is one of the most mind blowing, well crafted, orchestrated pile up crash I have seen in a movie.
Just like Final Destination, Final Destination 2 is a guilty pleasure of a watch.