Finishing up a Franchise: The Final Destination (2009)

Well I just sat down to watch The Final Destination. Right off the bat it does not make sense that this is THE Final Destination. As they even go in chronological order, Final Destination (2000), Final Destination 2 (2003), Final Destination 3 (2006), The Final Destination, and Final Destination 5 (2011), the title makes no sense, ESPECIALLY if the next movie was just going to be another numbered sequel. So, for the sake of avoiding confusion, im just going to call this movie Final Destination 4.

Besides all that, the play on words is only applicable to the first film where they actually avoid a plane crash.

But this time they avoid a race track accident! And for any of this to be remotely credible, EVERYTHING had to go wrong.

But before I get into all that, I want to talk about the opening. In the opening several deaths are shown in x-ray featuring many skeletons suffering from impalements and decapitations.

I have been a fan of this series for a while. To be honest, my first experience in this franchise was Final Destination 3, the one with the roller coaster accident. Since then i have seen the other and just yesterday, I finally got around to Final Destination 4. That being  said, the opening title sequence is one of my favorite parts of this film because it pays homage to the first film. All the deaths in order of how they happened. Thats pretty cool and I respect this film for doing that. But the film goes downhill from there.
The film suffers greatly from a lack of realizable characters. It seems that the film is almost too self aware. This ends up being a bad thing though as the film treats is a if we have no concern for the story but instead are just waiting for the next gnarly death.

Now like I was saying unlike the previous films in the series. The events of this car crash are so fantastic that it really makes you doubt the likelihood of an accident of this degree. Like I said, everything had to go wrong for this accident to happen. And that takes you out of the film.

But I finally got through it and I have officially seen all five of the final destination films. But in doing so I have had a stark realization...

I have a huge problem with the deaths of the final destination franchise.

I think it is largely due to the total disrespect the films have for the structural integrity of the human body. Yes. Most of the things that happen in these films will kill you. But not as easily and never as destructive as the movies suggest. To make my point I'll reference the film that any movie like this is trying to mimic. The Omen. In The Omen, many people are killed by happenstance, accidents, or what have you just as they are in the final destination films. The primary difference being that the in The Omen, you have deaths that are remotely believable. As you would know if had just finished watching the Final Destination series, the deaths in this film are fantastical. Anything and everything will kill you in the universe that these films propose. And on top of that, your body and bones have the rigidness and strength that are akin to a meatloaf. This unfortunately makes the deaths as they stack up in these films less and less shocking. That is all to say I'm not afraid of these things anymore. They cannot happen the way that these films describe and so as far as I'm concerned they cannot happen at all. Whereas if they had stuck to more realistic deaths and really kept the realism over intended shock, they would have gotten a much more organic shock from the prospect of a death looking real rather than done up for a movie.

That's perfect actually. That is what these films are.

Done up.