FINAL DESTINATION
Ah, the perils of NOT being killed

  Here's something I don't think we've seen yet in the post-Scream world: a teen-oriented horror flick that takes itself seriously.  Well, there was I Know What You Did Last Summer, I guess, but it sucked, so it doesn't count.

Despite a perilous proximity to the dangers and horrors of much-dreaded "psychic-link" clichés, Final Destination presents some intriguing ideas, intense situations, and a pace so quick I was disappointed to note that there was only 15 minutes left when I looked at my watch.

Devon Sawa plays Alex Browning, who's scheduled to go to France for a ten-day trip with his classmates.  Everybody boards the plane in good order, while Alex takes note of all sorts of little things - for example, numerous indications of just how shoddily put together this plane really is - which are less than reassuring.  Then comes the kicker, a detailed and frightening vision of the plane exploding in midair.

Deciding he'd rather take his chances looking like a damn fool, Alex panics and tries to warn everybody, much to the displeasure of the airline crew and classmates, one of which attacks him.  In the ensuing melee, Alex, five students, and one teacher are kicked off the plane, and it isn't long before a huge fireball outside makes it clear that this senior class isn't going to have to endure being looked down upon by snooty Frenchmen.

So, through whatever miracle, these people have escaped death.  They all react to Alex differently after that (as if he were a freak, a psychic, a savior), but not for long, for death doesn't take well to being cheated, and takes steps (no matter how farfetched) to balance its books.

Remember the "freak accident" deaths in The Omen, like where David Warner gets his head sliced off by a sheet of glass?  Those were fairly simple.  One death here manages to work in a cracked glass, an exploding computer monitor, a butcher knife, a snaking trail of flaming liquid, and yes, even an exploding house!

Oh, this movie has its more simple payoffs, like the best large-vehicle-vs-human collision since Bride Of Chucky, certain to make you look both ways before crossing the street, if you don't already (and if you don't, how have you survived this long?).  But it's the more outrageous bits that are really memorable, even when the setup is totally contrived (like a car on train tracks, which is arrived at preposterously, but is executed with such confidence and skill, it's hard to care).

Sawa is good as Alex; I last saw him in Idle Hands where he was very silly (and very funny), and it's good to see that he can hold his own in a role a shade more serious.  Ali Larter is also good as one of the other students, and totally hot too, so I'm not complaining.  I kind of had hopes that Kirsten Cloke, playing the teacher, would show some of the spunk she amply demonstrated in Space: Above And Beyond, but she spends most of her screen time here crying.  Oh well, she's hot too.  Most everybody else is either invisible or annoying (take the one student who literally says "I'm never gonna die!" - I mean, sure, we all acted like that at that age, but I didn't know anybody so self-deluded that he'd actually say so in as many words).

Not all of the film works; a cameo from Tony "Candyman" Todd is heavy-handed and adds nothing except for some half-assed philosophizing and a creepily appropriate "See you soon" line.  And I can't say I "agree" with all the circumstances of the deaths; freak accidents are well and good, and should've been stuck to in the film.  Instead, at points, matter actually takes on a life of its own (water retreating once its work is done, for example), which is unnecessary, and adds an unwanted element of silliness.  I mean, isn't it good enough for death to claim these people, but it has to cover its tracks too?  And check out the unbelievably tacky monument erected in memory of the dead students and teachers - a big eagle with its wings spread!

The plot has other problems, not inconsistencies but, I do confess, affronts to my own personal prejudices.  I didn't mind so much the notion of Alex being able to pick up hints as to how the next death might happen (indeed, the method by which he discovers the order of the deaths is fairly clever), but this is never once explained.  There is some hinting that Alex is being given this knowledge by an outside agent that wants to help him continue to cheat death, but nothing comes of that.  At least Alex doesn't get saddled with awful "psychic link" scenes ("A...a train...is coming!"), but the movie frequently comes close to it.

Still, what am I bitching for?  Final Destination is a fun and well-made teen horror flick with imagination and energy to spare.  It's a gruesome good time; just don't watch it before a transatlantic flight.

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