Review
FINAL DESTINATION 2
Starring Ali Larter, A.J. Cook and Michael Landes
Directed by David R. Ellis
Opens Friday, January 31
Check listings
If you’re going to see Final Destination 2, don’t get too attached to any of the characters. Most of them won’t be around long if Death gets its way.
The original Final Destination (2000) prided itself on the unlikely and violently creative nature of the final fatal moments of each character. In most cases, death caught up with some teenager who had previously dodged an untimely demise by heeding psychic premonitions.
In Final Destination 2, writers Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber throw a million red herrings into their deathly set-ups. A premonition about pigeons could mean death by falling panes of glass. A gasoline leak could mean dismemberment by barbed wire. It’s never the death you expect, and even when you have some idea of what’s coming, it’s so gory that you forget you saw it coming – this holds for both the audience and the characters in the film.
The point of this movie most definitely isn’t development of the canned characters, or the overly simple plot, or even the deep, overplayed idea that we all have our time and everyone has to die according to death’s orderly plan.
The point is watching people die. Final Destination 2 has infinitely more class than a snuff film and much more shock value, but not much more morality. Sudden and unexpected death is the norm, and the film is a few notches gorier than its predecessor. If you manage to remember that the characters aren’t really dying, it’s easier to be impressed by the ways in which they meet their ends. And watch out for pigeons. |
