Review of Final Destination (2000) by Steph O — 23 Jul 2010

"But what if it was our time? What if we were not meant to get off that plane? What if it still is our time?".

I'm sure everyone on Earth knows how these movies work, by now. A group of people (attractive teenagers, for the most part) narrowly escape certain Death as participants in some disaster. Yes, Death, with a capital D. But Death is not to be denied, so he sets up increasingly elaborate scenarios to kill off the survivors, while they attempt to thwart his plans yet again and live another day.

As you can tell from the description, these movies are basically just about the death scenes and trying to guess how each person is going to bite the bullet, before it happens. They're like Saw without the torture and convoluted back story.

Compared to the movies that came later in the series, the original Final Destination isn't nearly as inventive or brutal with its death scenes. Some of them will seem downright tame to today's audiences (this movie was released way back in 2000, after all). But, if you're a genre fan who can still find entertainment in even a mild dose of this formula, Final Destination probably won't be a waste of your 98 minutes.