Appalling, Abysmal, Ridiculous, Pathetic...

Rating: 1/10 (19 May 2000)

This movie has to be the most disappointing of the year. I don't understand how people have claimed that it is even remotely original or interesting. The entire film is packed to the brim with the traditional "horror-movie" cliches, such as the curtains blowing in the wind and the strikes of lightning occurring every time something bad is about to happen. Not only that, but each death becomes more and more predictable as the film progresses, and by the time Billy was randomly decapitated by a piece of metal sent flying by a train, I was just laughing. The only commendable aspect of the whole saga was that the enemy, Death, was never visible, although whenever he was about to strike, there would be a lamentably stereotypical shadow cast across the room. Not even the plane crash was remotely scary, and the actors showed very little emotion about the fact that 50 of their classmates had just been killed in a mile-high fireball. Several killings were unbelievably improbable, such as Todd's "suicide" in the bath, Terry's collision with the bus (which I cannot believe nobody saw coming), and the electrocution and train scenes, where, amazingly, Alex manages to cheat Death. For a film which was supposed to promote the idea that Death is unavoidable, "Final Destination" has an abysmally happy ending. The cherry on the cake though, was seeing Tony Todd in cameo role as the morgue attendant who tells Alex, "I'll be seeing you soon." Worth seeing so that you can spend a couple of hours mocking every aspect, but this movie can't really score more than a 4.