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Movie Review
Final Destination 2
By Lee Tistaert Published February 9, 2003
US Release: January 31, 2003
Directed by: David R. Ellis
Starring: Ali Larter , A.J. Cook , Sarah Hattingh , Michael Landes
R
Running Time: 90 minutes
Domestic Box Office: $46,577,000
Directed by: David R. Ellis
Starring: Ali Larter , A.J. Cook , Sarah Hattingh , Michael Landes
R
Running Time: 90 minutes
Domestic Box Office: $46,577,000
C+
Guilty pleasure fun
The way the filmmakers are going with this soon-to-be-franchise (there?s a third installment in the talks), they?re going to turn it into the next Friday the 13th series; pretty good and original basis, and then rehashing it with eight more sequels.
Final Destination 2 is missing what made the original so fresh and original. The first flick was an actually intelligent teen horror thriller that used every-day methods (in terms of reality) of luring horror to the screen that didn?t focus on sudden jumps and dark alleyways to create the suspense. The writers skillfully took common activities and put an evil spin on it all, forcing such incidents to be scarier due to them having the illusion of reality. The filmmakers basically slapped a horror concept in front of teen and young adult audiences by saying that these incidents can happen to you. In a sense, they pulled a Hitchcock theme and created a nightmare in a commonplace scenario.
The sequel takes the basic fundamentals of the original and uses it all over again, yet makes a critical mistake of not creating anything new or different. This is really the original but not done as well, as it?s a continuation of death scenes that we experienced from the first flick. But the curiosity factor or the eerie sensation is not present anymore (to the same extent) because the folks behind-the-scenes have not introduced anything we haven?t seen before. While Final Destination 2 lacks some of the really terrifying deaths from the original, the flick does rebound a little bit with some pretty impressive-in-a-shock-standpoint moments.
There?s no scene where the audience jumps two feet due to a bus coming out of nowhere (quite possibly the classic moment of part one), nor a teenager suffocating in a brutal bathtub incident where the viewer is convinced they themselves are suffering. But the sequel does pick up the pieces to some extent with some elaborate death sequences that surely aroused huge "Oooooooh!" reactions from the audience and myself about all the way through. But in terms of uniqueness, Final Destination 2 is scarce in creativity.
The film opens as Kimberly (A.J. Cook), our main character, is about to embark on a road trip with her friends. It just so happens to be the first anniversary of flight 181?s crash from the original release. Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), our main hero in part one, had saved a group of people on a plane when he claimed the aircraft would explode in midair following a sequence in his mind when it all took place before takeoff. Kimberly, for some God-unknown reason, has been passed on with this God-like ability to see death coming from a distance. When she and her pals are driving on the freeway, she has the image of the huge car crash that is to unravel unless she does something in the nick of time.
While this beginning stretch has some cornball moments in creativity with bombarding the audience with hints that hey, people are going to die soon, the actual collision itself is quite an opening. The crash is a bit intense and did impress me, but it lacked the special fragrance that was brought on by the realistic portrayal of the plane explosion from part one. In the original, we had sort of a mysterious point-of-view, as we weren?t totally acquainted with everything quite yet and above everything else, it was brightly directed. Here, we know what we?re going to be seeing, as it?s just a repeated formula from the original without the real strong impact. In the visual viewpoint it?s pretty reasonable, but in terms of gulping new ground this doesn?t do a whole lot.
I was a pretty good sized fan of the original, as the screenwriters had drifted away from the usual teen slasher crap that studios traditionally roll out and handed in something that actually involved intelligence. Final Destination as a whole (both pictures) is not necessarily a horror film as it is a sort of fun eerie movie of trying to figure out how these people will eventually die. The real difference between a movie like Final Destination (or part two) versus any other teen horror movie is that you?re almost allowed to release a giggle or chuckle in result of a few death sequences due to the way they?re presented. Part of it is that the sequences can surprise due to the detailed and sudden nature of their mishaps, and next comes the overall "Oh my God!" reaction that can easily get one laughing.
In terms of comparisons, Devon Sawa was a much more believable lead in the original due to his strong conviction as an every-day nice guy stuck with this morbid power. He had a sort of innocence quality about himself and came off as a cool guy. In the sequel, A.J. Cook?s persona shares some similar attributes in personality but doesn?t carry the right performance (the script could be part of it) to really execute it as innocent as it needs to come off. I liked her as a person, but my sympathy level in character analysis was not as deep as it was for Alex Browning.
Kimberly?s relationship with her father is a little weak, as it?s pretty much just a takeoff of the original parental angle but so few time is spent on this division that not a whole lot is taken away in viewer enjoyment. The original flick did a really nice job of creating fiction-becomes-reality type terror in terms of the buildup of scenes and the overall interaction with others, including parents, once the scenarios rolled out. The sequel lacks this close relationship factor that allowed Final Destination to be solid in reasoning, but is almost more of a guilty pleasure fun experience than anything really deserving in quality.
The audience that was in attendance at the sequel was a fun group of people, as there were several occasions where laughter was in full gear after a few shock events had rolled out while the gore was to the extreme in the death events. This movie almost takes on a cheese-ball fun sort of glance at its horror elements, as we obviously aren?t meant to take the movie too seriously so we might as well have fun while the story is playing out. None of the characters are overly developed, but I wasn?t exactly there to analyze people and figure out who they were in personality. It?s a horror movie with an almost classy fun sense to it. But as much as I had an overall reasonably good time watching the flick play out, the fact that it was pretty much the same ?ol thing (from the original) in different scenarios took away from my willingness to hand over this sequel with a fairly recommending rating.
The finale of this film is actually one of my bigger evidences to why I?m not handing over a B- grade. Instead of handing the audience with a potentially eerie or leaving-it-right-open climax (as part one offered), the screenwriters have just continued what has happened previously in the story and not brought up anything fresh for the viewer to digest. As the crowd was going nuts at the last few seconds of the film, I sort of looked at the screen in a non-humorous angle and really wondered if this was the best idea that they could come up with. Final Destination 2 to me was not a bad movie, as I actually had a bit of guilty pleasure fun at this flick but was getting slightly tired of the originality in the scenes being minimal as the story progressed.
Despite a few (slightly) cornball acting deliveries in the supporting parts and illogical events that roll out just for the hell of it (even though yes, it "is" a horror movie), this flick kept my attention span engaged with the story for the most part. While my overall rating is typically a rental translation, Final Destination 2 is actually a strong C+ from me (borderline B-) and if you liked the original to any extent and want to give this a shot, I recommend it but don?t expect quite the same experience.
Final Destination 2 is missing what made the original so fresh and original. The first flick was an actually intelligent teen horror thriller that used every-day methods (in terms of reality) of luring horror to the screen that didn?t focus on sudden jumps and dark alleyways to create the suspense. The writers skillfully took common activities and put an evil spin on it all, forcing such incidents to be scarier due to them having the illusion of reality. The filmmakers basically slapped a horror concept in front of teen and young adult audiences by saying that these incidents can happen to you. In a sense, they pulled a Hitchcock theme and created a nightmare in a commonplace scenario.
The sequel takes the basic fundamentals of the original and uses it all over again, yet makes a critical mistake of not creating anything new or different. This is really the original but not done as well, as it?s a continuation of death scenes that we experienced from the first flick. But the curiosity factor or the eerie sensation is not present anymore (to the same extent) because the folks behind-the-scenes have not introduced anything we haven?t seen before. While Final Destination 2 lacks some of the really terrifying deaths from the original, the flick does rebound a little bit with some pretty impressive-in-a-shock-standpoint moments.
There?s no scene where the audience jumps two feet due to a bus coming out of nowhere (quite possibly the classic moment of part one), nor a teenager suffocating in a brutal bathtub incident where the viewer is convinced they themselves are suffering. But the sequel does pick up the pieces to some extent with some elaborate death sequences that surely aroused huge "Oooooooh!" reactions from the audience and myself about all the way through. But in terms of uniqueness, Final Destination 2 is scarce in creativity.
The film opens as Kimberly (A.J. Cook), our main character, is about to embark on a road trip with her friends. It just so happens to be the first anniversary of flight 181?s crash from the original release. Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), our main hero in part one, had saved a group of people on a plane when he claimed the aircraft would explode in midair following a sequence in his mind when it all took place before takeoff. Kimberly, for some God-unknown reason, has been passed on with this God-like ability to see death coming from a distance. When she and her pals are driving on the freeway, she has the image of the huge car crash that is to unravel unless she does something in the nick of time.
While this beginning stretch has some cornball moments in creativity with bombarding the audience with hints that hey, people are going to die soon, the actual collision itself is quite an opening. The crash is a bit intense and did impress me, but it lacked the special fragrance that was brought on by the realistic portrayal of the plane explosion from part one. In the original, we had sort of a mysterious point-of-view, as we weren?t totally acquainted with everything quite yet and above everything else, it was brightly directed. Here, we know what we?re going to be seeing, as it?s just a repeated formula from the original without the real strong impact. In the visual viewpoint it?s pretty reasonable, but in terms of gulping new ground this doesn?t do a whole lot.
I was a pretty good sized fan of the original, as the screenwriters had drifted away from the usual teen slasher crap that studios traditionally roll out and handed in something that actually involved intelligence. Final Destination as a whole (both pictures) is not necessarily a horror film as it is a sort of fun eerie movie of trying to figure out how these people will eventually die. The real difference between a movie like Final Destination (or part two) versus any other teen horror movie is that you?re almost allowed to release a giggle or chuckle in result of a few death sequences due to the way they?re presented. Part of it is that the sequences can surprise due to the detailed and sudden nature of their mishaps, and next comes the overall "Oh my God!" reaction that can easily get one laughing.
In terms of comparisons, Devon Sawa was a much more believable lead in the original due to his strong conviction as an every-day nice guy stuck with this morbid power. He had a sort of innocence quality about himself and came off as a cool guy. In the sequel, A.J. Cook?s persona shares some similar attributes in personality but doesn?t carry the right performance (the script could be part of it) to really execute it as innocent as it needs to come off. I liked her as a person, but my sympathy level in character analysis was not as deep as it was for Alex Browning.
Kimberly?s relationship with her father is a little weak, as it?s pretty much just a takeoff of the original parental angle but so few time is spent on this division that not a whole lot is taken away in viewer enjoyment. The original flick did a really nice job of creating fiction-becomes-reality type terror in terms of the buildup of scenes and the overall interaction with others, including parents, once the scenarios rolled out. The sequel lacks this close relationship factor that allowed Final Destination to be solid in reasoning, but is almost more of a guilty pleasure fun experience than anything really deserving in quality.
The audience that was in attendance at the sequel was a fun group of people, as there were several occasions where laughter was in full gear after a few shock events had rolled out while the gore was to the extreme in the death events. This movie almost takes on a cheese-ball fun sort of glance at its horror elements, as we obviously aren?t meant to take the movie too seriously so we might as well have fun while the story is playing out. None of the characters are overly developed, but I wasn?t exactly there to analyze people and figure out who they were in personality. It?s a horror movie with an almost classy fun sense to it. But as much as I had an overall reasonably good time watching the flick play out, the fact that it was pretty much the same ?ol thing (from the original) in different scenarios took away from my willingness to hand over this sequel with a fairly recommending rating.
The finale of this film is actually one of my bigger evidences to why I?m not handing over a B- grade. Instead of handing the audience with a potentially eerie or leaving-it-right-open climax (as part one offered), the screenwriters have just continued what has happened previously in the story and not brought up anything fresh for the viewer to digest. As the crowd was going nuts at the last few seconds of the film, I sort of looked at the screen in a non-humorous angle and really wondered if this was the best idea that they could come up with. Final Destination 2 to me was not a bad movie, as I actually had a bit of guilty pleasure fun at this flick but was getting slightly tired of the originality in the scenes being minimal as the story progressed.
Despite a few (slightly) cornball acting deliveries in the supporting parts and illogical events that roll out just for the hell of it (even though yes, it "is" a horror movie), this flick kept my attention span engaged with the story for the most part. While my overall rating is typically a rental translation, Final Destination 2 is actually a strong C+ from me (borderline B-) and if you liked the original to any extent and want to give this a shot, I recommend it but don?t expect quite the same experience.
Lee's Grade: C+
Lee's Overall Grading: 3025 graded movies
| A | 0.4% | |
| B | 30.0% | |
| C | 61.7% | |
| D | 8.0% | |
| F | 0.0% |
