The mix is elaborately designed, with a sound field that's well aware of all the tricks used to scare the hell out of you. With only a faint hint of noise in darker moments, and a slight glaze of motion blur (and I do mean slight), there's little room for complaint with this knockout transfer. Shot on ProRes 4:4:4 HD, a 3D camera, the film is rich with detailed textures, a solid palette of vivid colors, perfect shadows and spot-on black levels. Encoded in 1080p/AVC, mixed in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Final Destination 5 looks and sounds pretty damn awesome on Blu. Alas, IGN did not receive a copy of the 3D BD for review. The opening credits alone look completely awesome, even in 2D. Given the tremendous amount of 3D work that went into this production, I'd say fans with 3DTVs should consider a purchase. And lastly, Best Buy has a 3D Blu-ray combo pack as a retail exclusive. There's also a BD/DVD two-disc combo pack, also with an Ultraviolet copy. There's a one-disc version, which also includes an Ultraviolet streaming copy of the film. The film arrives on Blu-ray with three different releases. It's just trying to please the ones it already has.
Final Destination 5 isn't out to gain any new followers. But if you didn't care for the previous installments, there's no reason to check this one out. In this regard, Final Destination 5 is suspenseful in a "hide under the blankets" sort of way. The flick is gory as hell, mean-spirited and cynical, always with a shade of irony. It's true, this has always been kind of an issue with this franchise, but it proves most disappointing this time around, especially once you realize the middle act (and most of the final act) will be a replay of the original horror classic.įinal Destination 5 is not a very good film, though it does succeed at entertaining its many fans. But there's not a moment of gore, not a single shock, that really compares to the outrageous gore and mayhem of the bridge sequence. The deaths that follow all do have a clever shade of irony to them, and suspense is appropriately built throughout. In fact, the brutal bridge collapse is so effective, it renders the rest of the film a bit bland by comparison. And it also allows for a slew of 3D sight gags. It also allows for a myriad of clever, nihilistic deaths, each more gory than the next.
The set piece, while not as probable or freaky as some of the other set pieces from previous sequels, does serve as a pretty nifty visual effects piece. This time it's a bridge collapse that our lead ( Nicholas D'Agosto) sees a premonition of. fail to escape death in an ironic last second twist. Our heroes mourn their friends and colleagues, retreat to die one-by-one, have a tired conversation with Tony Todd (who seems annoyed he's basically doing the same thing he's done twice now), try to prevent their deaths, and (spoiler alert?).
All three are painfully bland, lacking any semblance of realism or inventiveness. Alas, like Nightmare 5, it's strictly amateur night when it comes to character development, story, or dialogue. There's a decent collection of gags every now and then, and the deaths themselves aren't without irony, but the film does try to play things much meaner, much darker. In Final Destination 5, the story has been scaled back from the overblown, almost campy, fourth chapter, The Final Destination.