The Final Destination

THE FINAL DESTINATION (2009) - Aug. 29, 2009
Another mediocre installment in the Final Destination series, this one finding the requisite prognosticating teen seeing a series of horrific deaths at a race track. This was presented in "Real D" 3D, which just reminded me how much I dislike this technology, though that was probably the least of this movie's concerns. The series' requisite elaborate deaths just felt perfunctory, though it probably didn't help that the over-reliance on CGI combined with the 3D projection made everything seem exceptionally artificial. The characters were all ridiculously under-developed, even for a Final Destination movie (aside from a reference to one of the side-characters being an alcoholic, there was literally no character development at all), which made it impossible to care about any of them. Suffice it to say, the screenplay is a big reason that this film doesn't really work; David R. Ellis's workmanlike direction is fine, if unspectacular, though the film does a really poor job of sustaining any kind of tension. It seems pretty clear that the presence of James Wong is required to make a decent Final Destination movie -- he directed the first one and the third one, which were the only enjoyable ones in the series. **