Year of Release: 2003
Director: David R. Ellis
Starring: A.J. Cook, Ali Larter, Michael Landes, Keegan Connor Tracy, Lynda Boyd, Jonathan Cherry, Justina Machado, Terrence Carson, Sarah Carter, David Paetkau, James Kirk, Tony Todd
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 4
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review
"Final Destination 2" premiered not long after the release of the first installment from James Wong, which turned out to be a surprise hit. The narrative on this second chapter picks up a year after the events of the first film. This time around the focal character is Kimberly Corman, a college student who is on her way to Daytona Beach with a group of friends for Spring Break. While driving along the highway she has a premonition of a massive pile-up, one that causes multiple deaths, including her own. Frightened by the premonition, she stops her vehicle, and prevents others behind her from getting on the main highway. A police officer by the name of Thomas Burke comes in her direction to find out what is causing all the commotion, and as Kimberly explains what she saw, the massive crash takes place right in front of all them. All the survivors are relieved to have escaped the dramatic situation, but in the ensuing days, eerie accidents start occurring and start claiming each of the survivors. That is, until Kimberly and Thomas discover something similar happened in the past and try to thwart the nefarious events from occurring. And they go back to Clear Rivers, the only remaining survivor from a similar event, to understand how she's managed to stay alive.
David R. Ellis started his career as a stunt performer and eventually evolved to stunt coordinator and 2nd unit director. He also ventured into directing feature films, with "Final Destination 2" being his sophomore directorial endeavor. Much like the films of the series, and the formula they abide to, David R. Ellis is able to capture the menacing aspect of the situations that eventually lead to dramatic and chilling death situations. The best aspect of this film is how the director understands this is a B-movie for all intended purposes, and moves the narrative in an economical and efficient manner. However this efficiency does make these characters all feel very cardboard in terms of understanding who they are: the college student who is kind, but has a premonition and a traumatic event in her past, the kind police officer who comes to her aid, whereas everyone else on the surviving group, are just a collection of characters defined by a particular characteristic/cliché (the pothead, the self-involved one, the mother with the teenager, the young professional, and so on). While no one watches these films for character development, they could benefit from making these individuals more realistic, as opposed to puppets that fall prey to something sinister that is happening. The cast is solid, and they do make this episode one of the most compelling in the series, particularly with A.J. Cook, Michael Landes, Terrence Carson, all bringing as much veracity as possible to the characters they're playing. The production team is solid, though not particularly remarkable. It's a watchable feature, even if rather unremarkable.
0 comments:
Post a Comment