Final Destination 1 – First of five Final Destination Reviews

Hello everybody, ready for yet another horror movie review after both Repo! The Genetic Opera and The Bye Bye Man? I hope so, since I will be doing one for each of the 5 Final Destination movies. I will do one each day for the next five days and on the sixth day I will write my opinion about all 5 movies.

I have watched all Final Destination movies many times and I am still not tired of them. So here goes, the first of the five Final Destination reviews.

The story – Final Destination

The main theme of the movie is the main theme of all the movies. Some people cheat Death in various ways and Death doesn’t like that. In the first Final Destination movie Alex, the main character, has a vision that the plane, him and his classmates are on board, will crash. He and a bunch of other students and one teacher get off the plane. From the terminal they can see the plane take off without them and then explode shortly after. The survivors, that is the ones who got off the plane, cheated Death. Death makes a new design. A design that should kill the survivors one by one.

*Burning house as part of Death’s new design*

That is the overall story. I find it interesting and there are not really any dull moments. The “detective work” with figuring out that Death has a new design makes sense most of the time. I also love that the sequence of who should die next is not random. It depends on the order people would have died in on the plane. The pace of the story is good through most of the story. The end is what annoys me the most since there is a time skip of 6 months and in those 6 months nothing with death has really happened as far as we know. I find that a bit weird.

The acting and the characters

The acting is really good, as far as I am concerned. The actors are good at showing the various emotions that they go through. All from completely terrified to sad to relieved. The actors also deliver the lines convincingly, as if they were experiencing the story in real life.

The characters are well made especially when looking at personalities. They vary a lot. Their personalities help me care for them which I value a lot in a movie. E.g. one of the characters, Billy, I always feel sorry for whenever I see him in Final Destination. Another thing I really like about the characters is that they are not easily convinced of Alex’s theories and ideas about Death. Also, during the movie various characters say something death related that you don’t necessarily note the first time you watch it.

The camera

There are a lot of things that has to do with the camera that I really like in Final Destination. There is a lot of zooming in on objects throughout the movie and also some lingering on objects. Futhermore the camrea also zooms in and focuses on “death” things. E.g. at the airport on the board where you can check at what terminal you can board your plane, the camera only zooms in on the word “Terminal”. It is also interesting how the movie implies that Death is near. Usually there is a small wind followed by a shadow that you often only see because the camera is zoomed in on an object.

The sound and lighting

The background music in Final Destination is amazing. It is a bit eerie. The Final Destination theme melody that is in the first three movies helps me feel uneasy whenever it kicks in, and that is exactly what a theme melody should do. It is usually followed by dark lighting. This helps set the mood for the movie already from the beginning. Both the background music, the sounds and the lighting make Final Destination more creepy. The end credit song of the movie is also very suitable for the topic. It was well chosen.

Other things

There are a few other things I would like to talk about. There is one thing I don’t get. Does Alex’s parents not think it is weird that Alex is not home a lot of the time? Alex just walks around at night and at some point he even sleeps in another place. You don’t really see his parents a lot after the accident. I also really find it annoying that sometimes Alex is very smart and other times he is extremely stupid. One thing I really do like about Alex, however, is that he kind of becomes a symbol of death to the other survivors. He often shows up when other people are dead or about to die.

*The teacher looking out her window at Alex*

Talking about the different deaths that occur throughout Final Destination, some of them are more realistic than others. I do love how creative the writers of the movie are with many of the deaths. I sometimes wish I could erase Final Destination from my mind so I could watch them again not knowing how the characters would die. Then again the movie still manages to make me feel uneasy after watching it. Every… single… time.

Final Destination is a…

Great movie! It has a few flaws but overall the story is really good, the thriller/horror elements are there and make me feel uneasy, the acting is good and so is the music, lighting and camera work. If you want to watch a horror/thriller movie where you can’t predict everything and where you sometimes will be at the edge of your seat then, please, be my guest and watch Final Destination. And if you can predict exactly how all the people in the movie will die, I salute you.