A good idea sucked dry by a predictable plot.

Rating: 3/10 (17 February 2002)

When I first heard about Final Destination, I found the premise intriguing. Death stalking it's victims, unseen terror. I actually saw it hoping that it would be an elevation above the teen horror flick genre. Hope as I might, the burst into flames as quickly as the plane that sets up this cliche ridden, badly written, and horribly acted film. Alex Browning is journeying with his classmates on a year end trip to Paris. The movie opens admirably, despite several predictable moments (Alex's father saying "Live it up, you've got the rest of your life ahead of you", when thunder suddenly booms in the background and ominous notes take over. We are introduced to all the key characters at the airport, several creepy, morbid kids who would benefit from psychological counselling. Anyway, as Alex boards the plane, he falls asleep and is struck by a extremely vivid (and frightening) vision of the plan exploding. When he causes a ruckus, Alex and several other members of his class are forced off. Upon takeoff, guess what happens. The plane explodes, leaving the seven survivors to mourn for the two-hundred and eighty killed. Now the idiocy begins. Toilet water chases people through their houses, knives fly, kitchens explode, small sheet metal becomes deadly, decapitating flying blades. James Wong, who did several X-Files episodes, obviously hoped to capitalize on this original idea of seven people who have cheated death, and have angered the cosmic existance. But he is a rookie, and, though their is no boogeyman, the deaths of several expendable students are completely cliched. The acting is forced, Devon Sawa and Ali Larter prove incapable of evoking sympathy, and Tony Todd as the death-obsessed mortician, is almost painful to watch. However, challenging the acting for the statuette of 'pointless endeavour' is the writing. Idiotic sick jokes fall flat, mindless murders grow tedious, and embarassingly bad lines pervade this film. The stupid psychobabble makes the story seem incredibly corny, while an abyssmal ending, attempting black comedy, mares any chance of redemption. A good outline for movie, but nothing more. Maybe in a few years a more qualified director will produce the premise more seriously.