Why So Blu?

Brian Braves The Final Destination 3-D Death Trip

After viewing Halloween II last night, The Final Destination 3D was like a breath of fresh air.  It was like much needed oxygen to my constricted blood vessels in my brain that have been suffocating from choking paralysis since last night.  If I knew it was going to be that easy to get the bad taste of Halloween II out of my mouth, then I would have went to my local multiplex first thing this morning.  Wait!  Let me have this moment.  Ah, to be free again.  This feels great!

If you have seen any of the previous three Final Destination films, then you have already viewed this one.  But wait!  This one has a gimmick.  That’s right.  The 3-D viewing option is the main crowd pleaser here, and I am happy to report the movie succeeds in that respect.  3-D has come a long way since the days of my youth.  Once reserved for the Pixar cartoon-like films, 3D is slowly finding its niche in the live action realm.  I was pretty disappointed with the overall effect in My Bloody Valentine, but more than pleased with its use in The Final Destination.  As with all 3-D films, you can definitely tell that key scenes were shot for the particular perspective in reference here, and I could not imagine wanting to view it any other way.  Much like Beowulf, seeing this movie theatrically in 3-D is the only way to go, as it really doesn’t warrant a second viewing, especially in its native 2-D resolution as it will appear on your home video display.  Let’s not be fooled.  Those red and blue packaged glasses, which come with home video releases, just don’t come close to capturing the theatrical experience no matter what format you are watching.

So was The Final Destination 3-D viewing worth the price of admission?  I would say so, as long as you go during a matinee showing.  Just like the previous three films of the franchise, I walked into the theater knowing exactly what I was in store for and walked out a satisfied patron.  This one was a bit different because of the added bonus of 3-D, but it still followed the same classic Final Destination formula, something Rob Zombie should have taken note of in his latest infarction. 

I really don’t think I need to spend any time focusing on the plot.  I’m sure the majority of my readers have seen at least one of the Final Destination pictures, and if you seen one you inadvertently seen them all.  As I mentioned before, they all share the same exact formula, nothing too complex.  A teenager experiences a déjà vu perception of something catastrophic that is going to happen, they cause a commotion and ruin the plans of a bunch of strangers and as a result end up being a temporary hero for all the lives they accidentally saved in their heightened moment of fright.  That is until death intervenes.  One by one, survivors are killed in freakish and never before scene death sequences on the silver screen.  I have to admit, the originality factor in the death sequences was the main reason I checked out the second and third films of the franchise.  I wanted to see just how creative they were.  Of course, the Saw franchise has them topped in every which way, but you can’t forget to pay homage to the movie that started it all, that being the first Final Destination film.

In what is deemed as the final installment, we witness an auto race gone terribly awry, in which nine people survive.  That’s if I counted right.  Throughout the duration of the film, the survivors must move fast to study and find and fight a way to beat death.  As you probably already have learned from the previous three films, by escaping their initial fate, they only temporarily cheated death.  Death will come for them in the same order that their lives were supposed to be taken.  The rules of death’s revenge are spelled out clearly through all four films.  They never deviate (hint…hint…Mr. Zombie).  Unlike the others, this film had some nifty computer generated graphics depicting the skeletons of humans suffering from the fate of blunt trauma caused by the impact of nails, spikes and whatever other sharp or dull object you can imagine, which could ever impale a person

So you want to hear a funny story before I let your attention go?  Or maybe I should ask if I still have your attention.  I bet you my friend Gregg cringes when he sees me start my sentences with and, buts and ors.  So anyway, as always, my wife and I stayed through the ending credits to make sure there was nothing extra at the very end, a practice that the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy of films made very common.  After the lights came back on I heard this guy two rows behind me say at least that was better than Halloween II was last night.  I had an instant feeling of déjà vu and looked back to see it was the very same guy and his friend that sat two rows behind us at Halloween II last night and immediately shouted that he wanted his money back after the horrible Zombie outing.  This instantly freaked my wife out as we had just got done watching this horror-like movie that dealt with deaths experienced from a feeling of déjà vu.  If she were a cat, the hair on her tail and spine would have been sticking straight up.  She grabbed me tight and forced me to leave the theater even though I wanted to converse once again with the man from last night.  That’s a pretty lame story, huh?  Oh well.  At least it’s a true one.  Until next time, thanks for reading!