Plot summary (from the studio): Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto) has a premonition in which he and most of his friends — as well as numerous others — die in a horrific bridge collapse. When his vision ends, events begin to mirror what he had seen, and he frantically ushers as many of his colleagues — including his friend, Peter (Miles Fisher), and his girlfriend, Molly (Emma Bell) — away from the disaster before Death can claim them.
But these unsuspecting souls were never supposed to survive, and in a terrifying race against time, the ill-fated group tries to discover a way to escape Death’s sinister agenda.
Warning: Spoilers below!
Liked:
- I thought it was cool that this film actually turned out to be a prequel to the original. I have to admit that I didn’t pick up on ANY clues (such as characters using old cell phones and listening to music from the time period) that would lead me to believe the events were unfolding more than a decade ago. I only realized what was going on when Sam glances at his plane ticket and it says “May 13, 2000″ on it.
- This is the kind of movie that you watch just to laugh at. I mean, come on… I wasn’t expecting anything out of this except silly entertainment, and that’s what it delivered. It was short and too the point, and the deaths kept coming at a fairly decent pace. Fine by me!
- In the premonition scene on the bridge, the only death I was truly shocked by was when Nathan got wiped out by that flying hook/crane. That was awesome!
- The setup for each death was pretty good. My friends and I had fun looking at all the dangerous objects in each room and trying to guess which implement would end up being the poor victim’s undoing.
Disliked:
- While the death setups might have been good, the actual events were utterly ridiculous. The gymnast falling like 5 feet and breaking her back like that??? Whatever. The guy getting his head smashed by a Buddha statue that was light enough to be moved off a shelf with little provocation but heavy enough to make a human skull explode??? Mmmkay. Those scenes made us laugh hysterically and took us way out of the movie as we talked about how impossible those things were.
- The “showdown” in the kitchen was long and boring. I didn’t want to see the characters chasing and killing each other. These deaths were supposed to be the hand of Fate, not of crazed lunatics.
- The ending with Nathan getting killed in the bar by falling airplane debris was just way, WAY over the top — even for a movie like this. It would have been much better to leave that character with the knowledge that he only had a few days left to live anyway due to the health problems of the guy he killed.
Rating:
Obviously, Final Destination 5 is not the kind of movie meant to be watched with a truly critical eye. You can’t hold it up to logic or dissect it too closely, otherwise the whole thing falls apart. It’s just meant to be mindless entertainment, and on that front, the movie does what it’s supposed to. I give it 3 stars out of 5.