Throughout the franchise, James Wong and David R. Ellis appear to have done a back- and-forth rotation with directing the series, with James Wong taking the director's chair for 'Final Destination' and 'Final Destination 3' while David R. Ellis takes over for 'Final Destination 2' and this one. The franchise seems to stay right on track with James Wong working behind the camera but not much so with David R. Ellis directing. As Ellis returns to the director's chair for the fourth installment, what results is what is possibly the worst entry of the this average franchise. This film opens up with twenty-something year old Nick (played by Bobby Campo), his girlfriend Lori (played by Shantel Vansanten), and their two friends Hunt (played by Nick Zano) and Janet (played by Haley Webb) spending their day watching the drag races at the McKinley Speedway. Out of nowhere, Nick has terrifying premonition of a car crash causing a rapid chain of disasters that kills everyone in the audience including him and his friends. Nick panics and drags his friends along with several other spectators out of the bleachers momentarily before the horrifying disaster he visioned unfolds and the remaining spectators are killed. Months go by, everyone tries to move on their lives, but Nick learns that the survivors are not safe as well as Death comes back to haunt them and claim their lives one by one as it originally intended when they escaped the disaster on the speedway.
The Final Destination series introduced a unique idea for the horror genre. Sadly, original ideas eventually wear out in the long run, and this film clearly shows it. With the previous films carrying a dark atmosphere, this one takes on a more comedic tone that results in humor making up the majority of the writing and characters while carrying on the same gimmicks from the previous entries. Yes, the film follows the same formula as what we experienced throughout the franchise, only here it gets more silly than something to be taken seriously. The characters are once again limited down to one-dimensional stereotypes but with less distinguishable personalities, and in the end you never come care for any of them. The performances the actors give aren't bad, but they don't help how wooden the characters are. The worse aspect comes to the death sequences which are much bloody and gorier than the ones from the previous films but less authentic and logical. The film takes the liberty of using CGI blood and gore that results in some of the deaths being more laughable than effective. The computer-generated blood splatter may fit well with 3-D (this is the first movie in the series to include 3-D), but overall it's just looks unrealistic. The only fun this movie brings the table is small plethora of thrills and some gory deaths to please those yearning for gruesome thrills than actual suspense. All in all, this film has little to offer than gruesome shock value.
The Final Destination is probably the least entertaining entry of the franchise, and probably the least favorite as well. This movie may some redeeming quality but most of it is buried under its bad script and tiresome formula. For a fan of the series, this one is worth the try but the replay value leads little to be desired.
