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DokBrowne [ 8.5 ]
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I don't buy that it takes an extra long time to make a good "Final Destination" movie (part 5 is one of the better entries and its production schedule was the briefest of them all) but I will happily wait till 2039 if it ensures a part 7 as excellent as "Bloodlines", which may end up ranking #1 in the whole series once recency bias wears off.
1. They refresh the tired story formula that had been repeated 5 times in a row (now it's a specific family saga that spans generations, which also gives all the characters an organic reason to stay near each other for once, and the opening catastrophe is actually a flashback/dream sequence that the person envisioning it wasn't even present for!).
2. The way said opening disaster is conceived and shot and edited and soundtracked and even color-graded in post-production, it pops beautifully off the screen like its own glistening doom-laden acrophobia-juicing work of art short film, running comparable to the franchise's best openings (parts 2 and 5?).
3. Many playful variations on our overfamiliarity with the signature "FD" moves, like having a character who has spent literally decades fortifying themselves against accidental death, another who points out that cancer in old age is their particular death curse (surprised it took the franchise 6 movies to make that joke), and a tangled and extremely painful-looking death trap sequence that a person actually survives (and doesn't even die an ironic twist death afterward..well not immediately afterward).
4. Instead of the John Denver runner or one grim song siren per movie, this one makes a game out of needle dropping a whole roster of big pop classics that each lyrically foretell of imminent fatality. The selections themselves run a bit hacky but seems long past time to make "FD" a jukebox musical on top of everything else.
5. There's still/always going to be a problem with not-entirely-convincing CGI (to be blunt it looked like shit most of the time in parts 2-5) but I totally forgive that here for the sheer volume and variety of horrifying demises they're trying to animate, plus at least a couple of the kills are hauntingly visualized slasher-movie all-timers (one where we watch in full as a face gets popped by a garbage truck compacter, and another where someone gets bent in an unholy way inside an MRI machine).
6. Either to coincide with Tony Todd's real-life terminal illness or just by morbidly perfect timing (his final words were intentionally bittersweet, but not sure about the rest of his usage in the script), the series finally gives Bludworth more to do than just warn a new batch of strangers, in a clever act of full-circled storytelling and a truly moving farewell moment for an actor's entire career that few have ever had the chance to perform for themselves in this business.
7. in a way the grim endings to all these movies make them feel totally pointless (why so much scrambling and worrying about how/whether they'll survive when it always culminates in a nasty punchline) and the manner in which "Bloodlines" smash cuts to end credits is especially half-assed, but more than ever the themes and developmental qualities of this chapter help mitigate that abstract frustration with the overriding reminder that fuck it, everyone dies sooner or later, that's the point, that's the "Final Destination" motto, that's the horror genre in a nutshell, these movies are destined to remain evergreen in their literalized existential dread.
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| Weighted Rating | : 7.0 |
| No. Ratings | : 1 | |
| No. Reviews | : 1 | |
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