Review of Final Destination

Introduction

Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) has a premoniton that the 747 carrying him and his school classmates is going to explode shortly after take off. So real is the vision that he is escorted off of the plane along with a handful of others after causing a scene. As they are waiting at the terminal the plane explodes exactly as Alex saw in his vision. They had escaped death . . . but can anyone actually escape death?

When one of the survivors dies under mysterious circumstances Alex fears that Death is after them to settle the score.

It’s an interesting idea for a movie and one I couldn’t wait to see. I was a big Scream fan and this was being targeted at the very same audience so I was hoping for a great time.

Video

A very clear anamorphic 16:9 transfer that is as good as you would expect it to be for a movie that was made this year. The picture showed no flaws at all and the detail in the dark scenes is every bit as good as it should be on this format.

A first class picture.

Audio

Spooky stuff here. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack makes excellent use of all the channels to really heighten the atmosphere of the movie. The way the smaller effects are handled really help here as well, the wind moving around the room, the leaves rustling gently on the trees, the dripping of water on the floor, it’s all handled very well indeed. The sub woofer also gets a nice workout at key scenes also.

Add to this an excellently eerie score by Shirley Walker and this disc gets top marks in the audio stakes.

Features

Once again, DO NOT WATCH THE EXTRAS FIRST! Does anyone watch them before the movie? I don’t know, I doubt it, but I thought I’d just point it out because some of the surprises are given away big time.

It’s great to see another bumper selection of extras on a region 2 disc, maybe there is some hope yet for region 2 DVDs :).

The animated menu is very well done in a spooky style and fits in beautifully with the theme of the movie. This disc comes with your standard Theatrical Trailer and Cast/Crew biographies for starters. Then there are my personal favourites – the deleted scenes. Unfortunately there are only 3 scenes here (including the original ending) and I would have liked to have seen more.

These deleted scenes take you nicely into Interviews with Executives. This is a 13 minute featurette as it were about the test screening of the movie. An odd subject for a featurette but it ties in superbly with the deleted scenes as it explains just why there were cut.

The Directors Commentary track (featuring almost the entire production crew it seems) is interesting and very informative as usual although a little flat simply due to the fact that their voices are a little monotone.

There is also a Featurette on Premonitions which is a 20 minute documentary about Pam Coronado, an Intuitive Investigator who uses her psychic powers to help with police investigations. Apart from the very weak link to premonitions I have no idea why this is on here and it’s not even that interesting either.

A nice little oddity for this disc is the Games section. Here you can see if you have psychic powers by playing “Your Psychic Eye” or, once you`re distraught to learn that you are a regular person just like everyone else, you can always cheer yourself up and find out when you are going to die with the “Death Clock”. Quite a unique inclusion on the disc and add a little but of fun.

One point to note is that all the Extra Features are also anamorphic widescreen which is pretty unusual as usually I find myself having to play about with my remote controls just to get the picture looking normal for the extras.

Conclusion

I have to say I enjoyed this movie immensely. It’s the first movie that has made me jump in a long time and it wasn’t just me either. I watched it with a few mates and they all jumped at certain points in the movie.

This isn’t your standard American Teen horror flick. It’s far more original than you would think. It takes an excellent idea for a story and adds a believable cast and mixes it all up with plenty of shocks and surprises and a great ending.

Devon Sawa plays the lead of Alex Browning, the tennage guy who is blesses/cursed with portents of the future. The movie pretty much rests on his ability to get people to relate to him and he does the job brilliantly. Ali Larter plays the main female character of Clear Rivers who is one of the only people who actually believe in Alex as she can almost feel the premonitions rather than actually see them herself. As you will find out if you listen to the commentary the whole movie is packed with references to classic horror movies and characters. With this in mind it nice to see Tony Todd (the original Candyman) appear in a minor role as the mortician who is almost the physical manifestation of Death. He’s seriously spooky as a mortician who obviously loves his work.

This movie takes an excellent original idea and moves it along at a cracking pace with plenty of surprises. It’s amazingly entertaining and backed up by a top quality DVD is very highly recommended.