Everyone will admit that The Final Destination was never going to be the final film in the franchise. It made money. Everyone will also admit that it was a detestable piece of shit. Not only did it feel horribly rushed but the workmanlike filmmaking hints that those involved really couldn't be bothered. It was lazy, pure and simple, and for a series that is made on the tension of its death sequences, lazy is the wrong way to go.
Final Destination 5, then, should've been a train wreak (no pun intended), yet somehow it claws back the fun lost in the previous film. From the awesomely retro title sequence, the movie aims to be exactly what a Final Destination movie should be: a rollercoaster ride. It sounds clichéd but that's exactly how the best of this series work: They start slow, build up to an early plummet (the obligatory disaster set-piece) and then grabs hold for the remainder, giving you a safe but exhilarating ride through danger that leaves you beaming.
The characters are stock, the acting ropey, and the dialogue stinks but each subsequent death scene is surprisingly effective in building tension and using misdirection. For the most part, the victims are dispatched in ways you don't see coming and when the grue arrives you can't help but giggle in gruesome inventiveness of it all.
It wont win any newcomers over but for what it is, Final Destination 5 does exactly what you'd expect. The opening disaster (the suspension bridge collapse) is the first legitimately frightening opening since the freeway pile up from Part 2.
3.5/5
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