FBMR - Final Destination
Film-Buff Movie Reviews


FINAL DESTINATION (2000) ***

I wasn't expecting this film to be as good as it was. It was actually quite intelligent, and very suspenseful. There was just enough gory violence to shock you a bit, but not too much to gross you out.

This movie is about Alex (Devon Sawa) who, moments before his plane takes off for France, freaks out because he thinks the plane is going to explode. He and several friends are removed from the plane because of the commotion. When the plane does explode in mid-air, everyone if flabbergasted. They don't know what to think. For some unexplained reason, Alex was able to foresee the explosion, therefore cheating Death. However, according to some, Death has a design (fate) and when your time comes, it's your time. This keeps Alex and his friends on their toes because they don't know whether Death will be coming back for them, and if it does, when? Personally, I don't believe in fate. Deaths and accidents just happen. They are not predetermined. But then again, I don't know for sure.

Unlike some movies that use loud noises and sudden appearances to scare the audience, this film uses
suspense techniques that let the audience know what might happen before the characters do, and builds suspense in that manner. I also like the fact that the antagonist is never seen, you only see evidence of it. It leaves much more to the imagination that way and is also more suspenseful. I've seen a number of films where an unknown being is terrorizing and killing people, and when whomever or whatever it is is revealed, usually at the end of the film, it's often quite disappointing. It would have been more effective to leave the antagonist invisible.

IMDb - Final Destination