The Film
The Final Destination franchise keeps cranking them out -- every three years, to be exact. It's apparently such a juggernaut, the creators don't even need to change up the film titles to keep things fresh. Hence, The Final Destination.
See? See how they added that The in there to mix things up? That should clue you in to the creators' concerns about originality. If you saw the first three Final Destination movies, you know the formula: Hot young people cheat Death and Death is kind of pissed about that. Soon, people are dropping like flies, in a semi-stylistic manner. However, "death by car wash" could be the lamest kill scene ever captured on film.
That's pretty much it. Oh, except they befriend an older, wiser security guard (Mykelti Williamson). He is probably the only one you will care about, because you might remember him as the Bubba Gump Shrimp guy.
The Final Destination is all about the imagery, so you can expect some good results from this 2.40:1 transfer. The film was obviously shot to play into the whole 3D thing, with plenty of items flying (including heads) towards the screen, as well as a few impaling incidents. See the Extras for more on the 3D version. The 2D however, is still pretty vomit-inducing, which means from an image standpoint, the movie is a major success.
Every scene is crystal clear, sharp and without an ounce of grain. There are also accurate, extremely impressive colors. We would say this would make a good demo, if someone wasn't getting impaled through the eye or something almost every 3 minutes. Also, like most horror flicks, they aren't afraid to get a little boob in there -- but just a little is all you get.
The Sound
Nothing delivers bone-crunching effects like DTS-HD Master Audio. This film screams (literally) with great sound from beginning to end. Aside from the pain, we have cars whizzing and crashing, mall explosions, flames crackling and water spewing. This is a real party for your surround system -- as well as the rest of your block. Almost every sound is super loud, but it's also really consistent and immersive. Assuming you care about the dialogue, well, that was reproduced well too.
The Extras
This release contains both 2D and 3D versions of the film. While 3D was obviously more important to the creators of this film than something like, say dialogue, it gives you almost as big of a headache as the 2D version. There are car engines and scissors flying, organs spewing and heads exploding. All look interesting, but slightly cheap over the 2D version. Maybe it's because those paper anaglyph glasses with the blue and red frames just aren't comfortable. The film is only 82 minutes, though. Maybe your threshold for pain is better than most. After all, you are watching this movie. [editor's note: we'll expect a new version of this on Blu-ray 3D when that format becomes available. It may not improve the dialogue, but it should greatly improve the 3D effect and color accuracy, among other things.]
Other special features look impressive on paper, but sort of fall flat. Instead of a commentary or connection to the past films, we get a rehash of the deaths we just had to sit through. There's also a few pointless deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and a peek at the upcoming reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Final Thoughts
Was this trip really necessary? That answer is obvious. However, this seems to be the franchise that keeps on giving. Sometimes characters and storyline don't amount to a hill of beans. If they don't, The Final Destination is the movie for you. It's got stylish kills and 3D special effects in spades. After watching this, we can only assume that Death won't be coming for the Final Destination series anytime soon.
Product Details
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