Final Destination 5 (2011) Dir: Steven Quale
Instagram post:
With this Steven Quale directed film, I was finally up-to-date with all five films in this popular horror franchise. While they haven't exactly been stellar films, they have still been fairly entertaining. However, I knew to keep suitably low expectations. I had seen one or two clips from the film, but aside from that, I was going into it blind.
The camera quality difference compared to the previous films was significant. It's easy to forget how fast technology advanced around the time of this film. That said, there is still some very subpar CGI, which was most evident during the film's opening scene. Some of the visuals weren't all that bad, but those shoddy visual effects definitely distracted from that.
The story was pretty much a rinse and repeat of every other film in the franchise - it has definitely become a very predictable formula. The death scenes were alright, but I didn't find them overly creative or anything. I did really like the film's ending though, it was a genuinely cool full-circle moment for the franchise.
The three main characters were also the three most standout performers, albeit none of them excelled too much. Of the three, I enjoyed the acting of Miles Fisher the most - he was certainly the most consistent. Nicholas D'Agosto and Emma Bell weren't too bad either - I liked a couple of their scenes in the final thirty minutes in particular.
Of the supporting cast, I'd say the most notable performances were provided by the likes of Courtney B. Vance, David Koechner, Arien Escarpeta, and Jacqueline Macinnes. There were also appearances worth mentioning from P.J. Byrne, Ellen Wroe, and the returning Tony Todd, although none of them featured all that much.
Overall, this was a bang-average, forgettable, horror film that had a really cool ending. The majority of the film left my memory pretty quickly after the credits rolled, but I was still thinking about the ending a long while after. I really did think it was a good sequence. That said, a good ending does not a good film make, and this cannot really be referred to as such. It's a popcorn horror flick, that's about it.
Comments