Final Destination 2 Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

U.S. 2003
Director: David R. Ellis
Cast: A. J. Cook, Ali Larter, Michael Landes, David Paetkau, James Kirk, Tony Todd
Release Date: January 31st 2003
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

The Movie Review

Final Destination 2 film still 1


FINAL DESTINATION 2
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
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The first Final Destination released back in year 2000 was a highly creative juice injected to the Slasher subgenre. It brought a fresh but creepy air with a whole new kind of terror. Not ghost, not serial-killer in a mask, not any supernatural horror, and also not animal horror, but the death itself is the terror that chase everyone listed in his death list. Of course Final Destination would be memorable for its highly creative idea, and evidently it was also a box office success with its gross revenue as many as 6 times its budget.

A sequel is a must..., either in the filmmakers' point of view or in the moviegoers'. Unfortunately it took 3 years for the filmmakers to produce its sequel, which clearly 3-year span is filled with many good or awful movies that could have erased some memories of Final Destination. Now released in 2003, we have a sequel entitled Final Destination 2.

Final Destination 2 is set in 2001, which gives the illusion that it's only a year after the tragic airplane accident. Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) is going on a trip with her buddies. While waiting for the green light, she has the premonition of a devastating traffic accident with cars piling up involving all the cars behind her and she's trapped somewhere in the core. She frantically drives her car to block the traffic behind her, causing the other drivers starting to yell and irritated. But it turns out that her premonition is true.

A police officer Thomas Burke (Michael Landes) then gathers every driver of the cars behind Kimberly and Kimberly herself to the police station, where she explains her premonition and her knowledge of the last year bizarre airplane accident. Of course only to be mocked by the other survivors. But soon after one of the survivors is killed in a freaky mysterious accident, they gather once more to find a way to avoid the Death's List.

Hmm...first of all, a sequel bears a huge responsibility to fulfill the audience's expectations. I could easily overlook some flaws that exist in the first film in exchange for the novelty value. But most people will unintentionally notice those flaws if it still exits in the sequel. Final Destination has many characters that it needs to kill accompanied by elaborate means, but sadly (or not sad) we are not given the chance to know the characters better, thus we do not trully sympathize for their tragic death. All we care about is in what kind of new way will they be killed. This movie tries so hard to cram unnecessary elements that instead of making it more effective, those elements make the movie become harder to believe.

FD 2 is of course has several goodsides. The acting of A.J. Cook and Ali Larter are convincing and the brief comeback of Tody Todd is always welcomed. The death of the characters are also equally creative. But the most memorable scene from this movie is undeniably the mouth-gaper, the stunning and the breathtaking traffic accident. This scene is awesome. Which unfortunately the other scenes (including the ending) in this horror movie are no match to that opening premonition scene. This scene alone is fantastic...

All things considered, for the most part it would only satisfy the fans, but it’s still a good movie worth watching.