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Final Destination (2000)

So here we start, with the first, the best, Final Destination. With a name like Final Destination, it's surpring how un-final the series seems to be. It started in 2000, and now in 2011 their releang a new one next month right after my birthday, I guess it's the Final Fantasy effect.

So why is the first one the best? Well mply said, it was an original take on an unoriginal idea. The movie stripped down to bare-bones, is just a slasher film, with Death as the villain. Death stalks, and kills the characters off, one by one, just like Jason or Freddy.

The story is mple. Alex is going on a trip with his french class

to France, and while on the plane, before taking off, he has a vion of the plane blowing up, killing everyone on board. Of course he freaks out, like anyone would, and this results in him and a handful of his classmates and a teacher, getting kicked off the plane, to take a later flight. The vion comes true, but they were never meant to get off the plane, and now Death's plan has been thrown astray, and it's up the Death to finish what it started.

While the story is completely weak, it is an original take on the slasher genre, and for this reason, I completely enjoy it. Throw in some actors I care about like , Devon Sawa, from Idle Hands, Seann William Scott, from Dude Where's My Car, and even a cameo by Tony Todd, as a funeral home worker with a twisted sense of reality, and you got yourself my money. Add to the original concept, and the actors, some totally awesome deaths, and you got yourself a live long fan here.

The death's themselves are by far the shinning point of the series, and as the series grows only get more and more graphic. The later entries in the series are only worth watching for the deaths, nce they stopped getting good star talent, and just rehashing the same story, changing the accident from plane crash, to car crashes, ect. The death's in this one, while not nearly as graphic, are still quite amung to watch, ranging from a strangulation scene that never fails to bother me, to a decapitation that comes out of no where.

Everyone who would be interested in this one, has already seen it by this point, but if you haven't, or if it's been awhile, I suggest watching it, maybe not so much the ones to follow, unless your like me and your pumped to see how people die in the upcoming release.

Score - 89% Gore - 8/10

I enjoyed this solely based on it being a clever, new idea. Horror movies so often have that tried and true stalker/killer as the main antagonist, and while that works most of the time, it was interesting to see this entirely new take on it. Death as the killer... it's an interesting thought. And I do agree, it's the death scenes that make the film. To orchestrate these completely outlandish but at the same time entirely plauble manners of death as a means to an end was really quite cool.

The only thing that bothered me about this film (apart from the fact that it spawned crappy sequels) was that there never seemed a reasonable explanation as to WHY Devon Sawa's character had his premonition. With even the shoddiest films able to come up with elaborate backstories for their spooky happenings, why couldn't there be some explanation for a random high school boy suddenly getting an eagle eye view of Death's plan? So much of the story hinges on this preset plan of death - who should die, in what order, etc - that it seems ridiculously random that some kid should have a sudden inght into it all.