Final Destination 4 (2009)

Director: David Ellis
Cast:
Bobby Campo/Nick
Shantel VanSanten/Lori
Nick Zano/Hunt
Haley Webb/Janet

Plot: Kids cheat death. Death goes after them.

Review:
I'm a BIG fan of the original Final Destination (8/10). I found it to be an original movie full of wit and some good suspense and scares and likable characters. I loved it! Then Final Destination 2 (7/10) came around and I liked it. Did I love it? Not really! It was too jokey and comical for my liking. But I still liked it, enjoyed it, and had a good time with it. But Final Destination 3 (5/10) came out in 2006 and I was disappointed to say the least. It wasn't what what I was hoping for. But now Final Destination 4 (yes I know it's called The Final Destination but I think that title sucks) was just released...and oh boy...
I'll begin with the good stuff. The death scenes were gory and brutal. The deaths weren't as extravagant as the first three films...but I still saw blood. They had a nice mean streak to them. I was having a good time whenever one of these "people" were about to die. As a whole I was "enjoying" the movie on a complete surface level. It was fast, short, and didn't waste time. The morbid humor had too. They really axed ANY meat this film could've had. I was having a good time...but here's the thing...that's all it was.
The opening crash...pretty bland in my opinion. It didn't excite me and I found it to be boring. As the movies go on, the opening premonitions seem to get worse to me. The first two films had GREAT opening premonitions, and I even REALLY liked the roller coaster from the third film. BUt the premonition in this film was just...bad in my opinion.
There was NO PLOT to this movie! It was just death scene after death scene after death scene...and you got it. I can TELL this movie was edited since all of its meat and story was gone! I love my mindless splatter films, but I still like there to be some time of story behind it all. I need something. What about the characters you may ask? Who cares is all I have to say?! These are hands down the LEAST developed characters of the series so far! I honestly didn't give a fuck about any of them one bit. I just wanted them ALL to die. Come on movie! You have to at least give me ONE character to root for! But everyone in this film was boring or annoying. And I thought the characters in FD3 were bad, but at least in that film I had Wendy, Kevin, and Ian to root for. Wendy was a GREAT character. Here i cared about no one. Although the main guy, Bobby Campo, was hot. I'll give them that. Even his girlfriend was cute. I love redheads since i'm a redhead myself. But again they were so paper thin i cared about no one. Granted the character played by Nick Zano (Hunt) was a fun character. I laughed with him...but thats about as far as it got. But I can't say I actually liked his character. He just made me laugh.
Acting wise...uneven. People were on. People were off. No one really truly stood out to me except for Nick Zano. He was the only one who seemed to have a good time and added life to his lifeless role. But other than him...nada. But i have a feeling this had to do more with the craptastic script. It's not like the people had much to work with in terms of substance. Better luck next time with these folks. I especially want to see more of Bobby Campo, now there's a hot guy! ;) Too bad his acting was atrocious.
The least they could of done was have an awesome finale. I feel like the last entry and this one didn't have one. They just ended and that was that, while the first two had awesome endings and final destinations so to speak. I don't know how to explain this, but this film just seemed to lack a finale.
Overall i won't lie, I had fun...but i just wished there was more in terms of story and characters. I know i'm weird. It's a horror film. Most people don't care but I do. I'm not asking for Hamlet, just give me some likable characters especially a great hero or heroine, good gore, some suspense and a well written script. It's NOT that hard.
Lets hope that Final Destination 5 is better...

OVERALL GRADE: 3/10