Teenager Alex Browning and his classmates board a plane from JFK Airport to Paris, but just then he has a traumtic premonition that the plan will crash and walks out back to the terminal, accompanied by four of his friends and teacher Lewton. Later, the plane indeed explodes, killing everyone inside. Afterwards, one by one, the survivors die in mysterious circumstances, including Tod, Terry and Lewton, so Alex deducts that they "cheated" destiny by avoiding the flight, but that Death is now killing them anyway, to compensate. The flight seats give a clue who will be next. When Billy is decapitated, Alex hides inside a cabin, but then goes out and saves Clear at her home, when a chain reaction caused an electric cable to ignite gasoline. In Paris, Alex, Clear and Carter relax, but then another chain reaction of events happen, and a sign falls on Carter.
The originator of the famous horror film series, "Final Destination" is more interesting in its initial premise than in its execution, characters, story development or style. The premise that five teenagers and a teacher "skipped" death when they left a flight where everyone died, so now Death is killing them one by one to "fulfill their destiny", is intruiging, yet the director James Wong rarely makes anything more than a standard, routine, albeit solid horror flick out of it. The opening act is the best—Wong here manages to create a creepy sense of unease as the teenagers prepare to board the plane at the airport, where little details and slow camera drives slowly build-up suspense. The protagonist Alex knows something is "off", but cannot quite put his finger on it. When he has a vision that the plane will explode, he causes panic and is thrown out of the plane by the staff, creating mystery and uncertainty, and poses some questions about fatalism. However, these potentials are quickly squandered—the "accidental" murders later on are so ridiculous and silly that one cannot take them seriously. For instance, 35 minutes into the film, Tod accidentally slips in the bathroom, a rope is caught around his neck, but he cannot stand up because his feet are wet, so he strangles himself. In another, teacher Lewton accidentaly drops some water on the computer, it causes a short circuit, an explosion which catapults glass shrapnel into her neck, and then—in a series of dumb chain reactions—she trips, the kitchen is caught on fire, and as she lies on the ground and tries to pull a towel from above, a set of kitchen knives fall down on her. Or the banal clichee of someone stepping on the street, and then all out of a sudden a bus hits said person? Come on! These are not creative ideas, nor are they inspired, which makes the whole storyline feel forced, contrived and shoehorned.
Grade:+
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