A Bad Design

In 2000, New Line Cinema released Final Destination, a movie with a premise borrowed some from previous works, most notably an episode of The Twilight Zone. A kid has a vision of his death, alone with his friends and others on an airplane as it explodes in midair. After the vision, his need to get off the plane forces or convinces others to get off the plane before it takes off and then, explodes.

After that, death's original design, which included the deaths of those who escape the plane, comes around to get those it had not accounted for, killing each in the way they would have perished on the plane.

Great idea, huh? Like Scream, this thriller helped jump start the genre because it was not the same old shit we were used to. Even more, this was not someone who could be killed. There would be no final epic fight between the good character and the bad. Death was a soulless killer, but not a killer out of hatred, but a design. It was survival against the elements.

Unfortunately for death, Hollywood's neverending desire to make a buck ruined the legacy of the first flick, a clearly solid piece of work that included the stellar ability of Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, and Sean William Scott. Now, a sequel was unevitable, but unlike the first movie, the ultimate storyline was something we were already used to. Yeah, death's a bad mother and it's coming for its lost kids.

The second flick saw a great opening scene that provided for a vision, but even with the return of Larter, the movie could not recapture the ingenuity of the first movie. To make up for this, the film focused more on gore. While the first movie had its share of gorish scenes, Final Destination 2 went that extra level. Remember Scream 2's rules about a sequel? "The death scenes are always much more elaborate, with more blood and gore." FD2 played this up as much as possible. Suffice it to say, they found a way to kill people with a large pane of glass, a ladder, and a piece of PCV pipe.

I have mentioned Scream twice and I will do it again. Like that franchise, Final Destination was now left to an intelligent first movie and a major letdown for a second one. They sent out a third flick. I will definitely say the third Final Destination installment was better than Scream 3, but then, most home videos with toddlers hitting guys in the balls are better than that piece of crap.

FD3 went to the next level in gore and now, found a way to kill someone with a tanning bed, weights, and a car engine. FD3 got back to one person causing others to cheat death through her vision while others were sent to their death. In some ways, the third movie is better than the second one.

However, what hope I did have for the franchise to end on a bang ended with a dud of an ending to the movie.

Hollywood, just leave the smart thrillers at one movie. You will only hurt the legacy of the movie with contrived sequels than use the original plot that was unique and make it a staple of the franchise, thus taking away from the thing that brought fans to the series. Unfortunately, a fourth movie is a possibility. Maybe death will stop giving these kids visions.