Final Destination 5 - Blu Ray Review

Final Destination 5
Rating: M
Released by Warner Home Video

Fifth time's the charm for the franchise?

When a group of workers head out on a coach on a business retreat, Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto) has a premonition the vehicle he's on is going to be pulled off a suspension bridge which will collapse. The vision's so powerful, Sam persuades seven of his co-workers to get off and run for their lives.

While the bridge does indeed collapse, the eight of them reckon they've had a lucky escape...however, when one by one, they're picked off and die in mysterious ways, it's clear Death's marked their card and is determined to collect.

Final Destination 5 has some good points and some bad points - while the bridge collapse scene is spectacularly well done, the rest of the deaths seem a little forced and it feels like the writers are starting to feel the strain of inventing new ways to off a largely unknown cast.

That said, some of the scenes, including one where one poor girl gets a fatal laser eye treatment, are likely to have you squirming in your seat and the addition of 3D means a variety of objects spike out at you on the screen. But the gore is mainly more amusing than frightening and Quale does a good job of stretching out the tension so that by the time the final death scene comes round, you've been waiting for it for a while.

A clever addition to the series, as explained by Death's emissary Tony Todd, is that if you're marked for death and you kill someone else, you're given back your life is unexplored for the potential dramatic tension that it has and is wasted as a great new twist which would have had some scripting legs. Equally, the ending is impressive and to discuss that any further would venture into spoilers territory - but it shows there is some thought gone into the latest film.

Sadly though, with a relatively bland cast of at times wooden actors and some frankly average dialogue, any real tension between the group feels forced and unrealistic, leading you to struggle to care if they are offed or not by the Grim Reaper.

Ultimately, if you're after a few comic moments, a bit of suspense and blood splashing onto you courtesy of 3D, then Final Destination 5 will tick your boxes. Everyone else will just hope the franchise is now finally laid to rest.

Extras: Alternate death scenes, special FX split scene

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