Death Strikes... again?

Rating: Null/10 (4 March 2004)

It has been a year since the terrifying disaster of flight 180 and the discussion of what caused the strange deaths of those that escaped the crash lingers on. On this anniversary of the flight, Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) and her friends are disembarking on a Spring Break road trip. However, Kimberly is about to experience the unthinkable. In a vision that is harrowing to watch, the audience is treated to the most gruesome and realistic highway pileup ever committed to film. Anyone who is already afraid of the dangers of being on the road would do well to cover their eyes during some of this scene.
As with Alex Browning in the first film, Kimberly is only experiencing a vision of what is about to happen. It is up to her to try to stop the lives of innocent people around her from coming to an end on that road. She decides to stop traffic from merging onto the highway and, in doing so, allows another group of people to cheat death. Among this colorful collection of characters is Office Thomas Burke (Michael Landes) who becomes the first to believe Kimberly and becomes her partner in crime (so to speak) as she begins the race to try to understand deaths design and how to bring the process to an end. As in the first movie, of course, those who cheated death begin to die in creative, unexpected and gruesome ways.

The plot here is so very simple that it only works to the movie's benefit that it is not always the focus. The clear reason individuals go to see a Final Destination film is obviously the death sequences. I am happy to say this film delivers in spades. The deaths here are harrowing and gruesome and every bit as imaginative as the first. All the actors here are above decent and add a strange bit of credibility to the ridiculousness of the film. The direction in the film is great and is ingenious in the tactics used to make sure even those who want to turn away at the gruesome moments are forced to share in some of the gory glory.
Through the film we see the return of a single character from the first film. Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) has locked herself away in a padded room to keep herself safe from death. Kimberly convinces Clear to help stop this new chain of events. Along the way, we also learn about Alex Browning's (Devon Sawa in the first film) ultimate fate. All in all, this film does an admirable job of building some suspense while not taking itself too seriously. Final Destination 2 also comes up with a clever way to tie itself to the first. This is a decent, fun follow up that does not really add anything to the mix but should be an enjoyable viewing for any fan of the first.