The Final Destination: DVD Review

The Final Destination: DVD Review

The Final Destination
Rating: R16
Cast: Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Mykelti Williamson
Released by Roadshow Entertainment
When Nick O'Bannon (Campo) gets premonitions at the local speedway of a whole heap of deaths thanks to a speeding flaming car hitting the grandstand, he manages to get himself, his friends and a few bystanders out of the park before it's too late.

Just seconds after they've vacated the track, catastrophe strikes and over 50 lose their lives as the envisaged accident takes place escape. However, with one of the bystanders killed within hours of the race track carnage, and thanks to a little help from the worldwide web, it soon becomes clear to Nick and his friends that their cards are marked and death is going to find them one way or another.

The Final Destination franchise lurches on with yet another tale of teens in peril - this time though, death's saved 3D as its preferred method of dispatching people. There's little to offer in the way of character development, plot or anything sensible - but for this franchise which started a decade ago, it's never really been about anything other than the deaths.

And while the use of this new digital technology sees some very impressive Bond style opening credits which mesh all the previous deaths from prior films, it soon resorts to having you duck and squirm in your seat as various deathly implements head towards you in the cinema. However, half the problem of this film lies with its characters.

Obviously underdeveloped and with little back story or attitudes which make you like them, it makes it difficult to care about any of those the Grim Reaper has his eye on. Even one of the main leads, an airhead jock, is so unlikeable that you don't really care when he meets his maker.

Mercifully short and with the 2D and 3D versions included in this release, there will be some who will absolutely love it - and there will be others (myself included) who hope this really is the end of the franchise.

Rating: 5/10