Horror movie series are not a rarity and they usually follow a similar pattern. In most horror films, a bulk of the characters are killed. Therefore, in the sequels, a new set of characters come to the same location or are menaced by the same kind of monster or killer. Despite the fact that we're dealing with people that we haven't seen before, there is something to tie this new movie to the older films in the series. But, the Final Destination series have evolved into something different. Each movie contains a similar premise, but each has also evolved further away from the first movie. Now, we get The Final Destination, a sequel which doesn't really have ties to the other films...or anything else for that matter.

As The Final Destination opens, we are introduced to Nick (Bobby Campo) who is attending a stock-car race with his girlfriend, Lori (Shantel VanSanten ), and their friends Hunt (Nick Zano) and Janet (Haley Webb). Nick notices that his seat is loose and a crack in the grandstand, and he suddenly has a very vivid vision of one of the race cars crashing and setting off a series of events which kills him and everyone in the stands. Of course, he panics, convincing his friends and a few others to leave. Just as they are outside of the seating area, an explosion and screaming is heard. Nick's vision was accurate! A few days later, Nick has another vision and learns that one of the spectators has died a fiery death. When another vision and death occur, Nick begins to believe that by leaving the race, he and the other survivors somehow cheated death and that they are all now destined to die in the fashion which he envisions. Hoping that he won't sound insane, Nick tries to convince the others that there may be a way to stop all of this.

When Final Destination arrived in 2000, The X-Files vets Glen Morgan and James Wong delivered a unique film which combined the supernatural with Rube Goldberg-like killings. The movie also featured (fairly) well-rounded characters who we didn't want to see die. Now on the fourth film in the series, the Final Destination films have evolved. With each movie, less time is spent on character development. Therefore, we aren't always concerned when someone dies. Also, the movies make less of an attempt to be connected with Final Destination in any way. The Final Destination takes all of this a step further.

When I finished watching The Final Destination, I turned to my wife and said, "Wow, that was barely a movie!" While I was being facetious, this brings me to my first point. There is very little story here. In the first three films, we began with a group of people who were doing something (going to France, taking a road-trip, about to board a scary roller-coaster). In this lately sequel, the characters are already at a stock-car race as the film opens. That's not very interesting, and as far as I'm concerned, if they went out of their way to attend a stock-car race, then they get what they deserve. There is also nearly zero character development here. I sort of assumed that Nick and his friends were high-school students, but Nick and Lori live together, so I have no idea what their situation was. They did talk about traveling to Europe, but unless they got a settlement from the race accident, we're not told where that money would come from. The other characters are all stereotypes such as bitchy soccer mom, racist, and mechanic. (Is this a sociology experiment or a movie?) In the other films, we got the idea that "Death" was a force which was after those involved. Here, everything truly feels like an accident.

When all is said and done, this movie exists solely to show us the deaths involved. In this way, the film is more like an amusement park ride than a movie. All extraneous story and pretense has been shed to provide us with an 82-minute thrill ride. And, you're either going to buy into this, or consider it a monumental waste of time. The interesting thing here is how Director David R. Ellis (who also directed Final Destination 2), plays with our expectations. He assumes that we've seen the other films and that we know how these things work. So, each scene is filled with multiple dangerous items, and most of these are red herrings. Therefore, there are few genuine shocks when A) a certain item doesn't kill the victim, and B) when something else does. It should also be noted that this movie is very gory, possibly the goriest of the series, but the blood always has a very tongue-in-cheek feel to it. Yes, it's all stupid and pointless, but like a funhouse, certain audience members will find themselves caught up in it nonetheless. Unfortunately, the ending kills all of the fun here. The ending, which was not the original ending, feels incredibly tacked-on and phony. It doesn't really fit with the rest of the movie and is far to downbeat. If you enjoyed the other Final Destination movies, then you'll most likely find something to like here, but go in with the understanding that like a kiddie pool, it's short and shallow.

The Final Destination...seriously, a stock-car race...on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Warner Home Video. The Disc contains both the 3-D and 2-D versions of the film. Both have been letterboxed at 2.35:1. The 3-D version offers a VC-1 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 20 Mbps. This really shows off the pros and cons of home-video 3-D. As with most red/blue glasses 3-D, the colors in the film never look very good and for most of the movie, I felt that I couldn't accurately guess what color most objects were. And the "comin' at ya'!" effects weren't very effective. However, this is still probably the best looking 3-D that I've experienced thus far. The image has an amazing amount of depth and for lack of a better word, it's simply cool looking. The foreground and background are clearly separated and it truly does add another dimension to the viewing experience, and makes things look more "real". The 2-D version has a VC-1 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 20 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no grain and no defects from the source material. Unlike old 3-D movies, which suffered when shown in 2-D, the image here looks good. The colors are very nice and the image is never overly dark or bright. The image has a nice amount of detail and fairly good depth. The Disc features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.7 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are very good, as the film features many moments, such as the race, when things move from side-to-side and this movement is accurately reflected in audio. The surround sound effects are nicely done as well, and the presence of sounds from the rear are nearly constant. The subwoofer effects are wall-shaking, but never overpower the other sounds.

The Final Destination Blu-ray Disc carries a small assortment of extras. "Body Count: The Deaths of The Final Destination" (22 minutes) contains seven short pieces which examine the key death scenes in the film. We get comments from Director David Ellis and the actors, as well a look at how the practical special effects and the make-up effects were done. I like this short and sweet approach. Next up are examinations of the film's opening (5 minutes) and finale (6 minutes) with a breakdown of the storyboards, pre-viz animatics, and visual effects. Surprisingly, none of this is accompanied by any commentary or comments from the filmmakers. The Disc contains nine DELETED SCENES which run about 7 minutes. These scenes do contain some additional gore, mostly from the opening sequence. There is also an alternate version of one of the deaths where the person dies in the same way, but the after-effects are different. There are also two ALTERNATE ENDINGS which run about 3 minutes. The original ending is sort of a bummer, but it's more satisfying than the ending presented in the finished film.