Final Destination 2
Director: David R. Ellis
Writer: J. Mackye Gruber, Eric Bress
Sequel to: Final Destination
Cast: A.J. Cook, Michael Landes, Ali Larter, David Paetkau, James Kirk, Lynda Boyd, Keegan Connor Tracy, Jonathan Cherry, Terrence ‘T.C.’ Carson, Justina Machado, Tony Todd
Seen on: 15.9.2024

Plot:
Kimberly (A.J. Cook) and her friends are going on a road trip. They are ready to have fun, until Kimberly has a vision of all of them dying horribly in a giant pile-up on the highway. In her resulting panic she stops trafic and thus keeps a few people from dying when the pile-up actually happens. Among them is police officer Thomas Burke (Michael Landes) who tries to figure out how all of this works together with Kimberly – especially when the survivors start dying in horrific accidents.

Final Destination 2 keeps close to the first film but doesn’t quite reach it. It is entertaining enough but it doesn’t have the feeling of a classic like this first.

I am reasonably certain that I saw Final Destination 2 way back when, but – apart from the thing with the tree trunks – I rememberd absolutely nothing about it. Maybe I only saw this scene later? Anyhow, I was kind of surprised that the tree trunk scene happened in this one and not in the first.

Maybe that’s also because this film sticks very closely to the first one in its tone, set-up, and everything. That Clear (Ali Larter) makes a return also reinforces this. It’s almost like you’re watching one movie with two elaborate opening credits. A little more standing on its own probably wouldn’t have hurt the film.

It also continues the tradition of having the most elaborate, highest and generally most impressive intuitive leaps in the character’s understanding of their situation that always prove to be right. I mean, as much as I like the concept, it really needs a lot of explaining. And bringing back Tony Todd, as much as I enjoy seeing him, emphasizes that nobody could have figured any of this out without those leaps. That they dialed up Todd’s role to make it the mostest Magical Negro they possibly could really isn’t good, either. (At least they actually had another Black dude in this film, and they discovered that women of color exist, too! Representation really has evolved in the last 20 years.)

Michael Landes does a lot for the film, just by being cute, making me almost forget how creepy it is how police officer Thomas and high schooler Kimberly immediately hit it off with a bit of romantic tension. But overall, the film, despite sticking so close to the original, or maybe because of it, lacks the impact of the first one.

Summarizing: okay.