The most obscure supernatural film to make over $50 million dollars is hoping for reincarnation with this innocuous sequel.
In the original “Final Destination,” five people about to embark on a trip are saved after one of the passengers has a premonition of the impending doom of the flight, which explodes during takeoff. Those “lucky” enough to live are then hunted, one after another by a slighted Death.
“Final Destination 2” opens with Clear Rivers (Ali Larter, “Legally Blonde,” “American Outlaws”), the only survivor of the hit 2000 supernatural thriller and its doomed flight. She’s now hiding inside a psychiatric hospital and preaching the terror of Death’s coming. And to her credit, it is.
Cue up several unsuspecting college students road tripping their way to Florida on the one year anniversary of the plane crash. Driver Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook, “Out Cold” “Virgin Suicides”) has a premonition of a horrible multi-car crash which is about to occur and saves a group of cars (filled with potential victims).
Apparently she missed the original film, for if she had seen it, she’d know she’s just pissed off Death (described as “an invisible malevolent force”) and soon he’ll be out collecting the escaped souls…again.
This group of fortunate strangers is thrown together and seeks the assistance of the only person on earth who might believe them: Clear Rivers. The only other returning actor is the ever-creepy Mr. Bludworth (Tony Todd, “Candyman”) as the morbid mortician who sees all.
Director David R. Ellis’ second feature imagines ingenious (and often gruesome) ways to suddenly kill off its cast members for creating a “rift in Death’s design.” The accident sequences are lavishly produced and severely over-the-top.
Warning: this film is not for the faint of heart. A head is torn off, a body is sliced to bits by barbed wire, one boy explodes into a million pieces, they’re impaled by pointy objects and several more are scorched by random fire. Apparently when Death wants you dead, he really wants you dead.
The action sequences in “Final Destination 2” are indeed extraordinary and outshine almost all of the acting, poor dialogue and campy, intellectually void plotline.
As for the highly anticipated highway road kill that opens the film: it’s worth the wait, even though it’s edited far more successfully in its shortened version in the trailer than it is in the film. It’s more disturbing to see a close-up of each and every car slowly meetings its doom, but it’s just not as interesting. Just like the rest of the Vancouver-shot film.
Acting-wise, Larter and Cook steal the show as the pair of surly survivors determined to break Death’s cycle.
“Final Destination 2” opened last Friday and is rated R by the M.P.A.A. for strong violence/gruesome accidents, language, drug content and some nudity.
