‘Final Destination 5’ is one of those films where you’ll either love it or hate it before you even see it. Do you like the ‘Final Destination’ series, or do you not? If you liked any of the previous installments, ‘FD5’ is almost a guaranteed satisfying film. If you’ve never liked the series, this film won’t change your mind. But as someone who liked the first two films in the series, ‘Final Destination 5’ surprisingly brings new life to the tired and worn-out franchise.

Like all the films in the series, ‘Final Destination 5’ starts out with its main character having a premonition regarding a disaster. In this case, Sam Lawton (Nicholas D’Agosto) is the central character and he envisions a bridge collapse. As with the previous films, the characters saved from their fated doom start dying, one by one; there are eight survivors this time around, including Sam. As each survivor dies in freak accidents, the remaining few struggle to find a way to cheat death once again.

The original ‘Final Destination’ was a good start to the franchise, introducing the ambitious premise where “Death” goes around killing a group of people who survived their “fated” deaths. ‘Final Destination 2’ developed upon the first film, and offered much more intricate and interesting deaths, as well as a spin on the premise where “Death” was killing the survivors in reverse-order, and also the idea that new life could cheat Death’s design. ‘Final Destination 3’, as bad as it was, introduced something slightly new to the series where the deaths of its major characters could be predicted through photographs. The fourth installment to the series, ‘The Final Destination‘, was just absolutely terrible. It offered nothing new, and featured predictably bad death sequences and terrible acting. ‘Final Destination 5’ is sort of a saving grace from the series, apologizing for the agony that was ‘The Final Destination’.

This fifth installment improves upon everything that went wrong with ‘The Final Destination.’ The first major improvement is the 3D. Right from the start of the film, ‘Final Destination 5’ gives 3D-goers their money’s worth, with a fun, action-packed introduction of things crashing towards the screen. The music playing during this long introduction complements the images on screen, and it raises excitement for the deaths to come later in the film. And with this improvement in 3D, we get better death sequences, some of which complement this 3D. ‘The Final Destination’ lacked interesting deaths because the film focused more on the 3D, and thus gave us cheap deaths for the sake of 3D. But this film is more clever with its deaths, and the 3D effect comes second.

‘Final Destination 5’s’ greatest asset is its suspense, and it’s filled with it, especially with the first death sequence involving a gymnastic accident. Director Steven Quale does a remarkable job at making this first death nail-bitting-ly suspenseful. As more and more little things go wrong in the gymnasium, and as the ill-fated character Candice Hooper (Ellen Wroe) unknowingly dodges each obstacle, just barely. The film forces you to be patient and wait for the character to meet her fate. It forces you to predict and calculate the deaths that are assured. The same painstaking suspense can be felt in the spa death sequence involving Isaac (P.J. Byrne).

Now, the deaths are pretty ridiculous, as a character in the film even acknowledges, “Who dies at a spa!?” But the fun in the ‘Final Destination’ series is the inventive death sequences, and this fifth installment definitely ups the ante in inventiveness, as well as suspense. And the best part about the deaths in ‘Final Destination 5’ is the fact that the majority of these deaths can happen. Human-error, loose screws, and faulty wiring add up to the deaths of the majority of the characters in the film. There’s a death involving laser eye surgery that’ll be sure to make you squirm in your seat, as well as keep anyone from getting laser eye surgery for the next few months.

The acting has never been the best part of the ‘Final Destination’ series, and this fact certainly applies to this film. However, ‘Final Destination 5’ actually features decent acting strong enough to carry the film, and the fact that it features two comedians helps, too (More so with P.J. Byrne (‘Horrible Bosses’) than with David Koechner (‘The Office’)).

‘Final Destination 5’ includes something the previous installments have been lacking – the inclusion of a detective investigating the freak accidents and deaths. Why it took so long for someone to investigate the events that surround each film escapes my mind, but it’s gladly put to some use in this film. However, the detective-aspect of ‘FD5’ doesn’t go deep enough, and it comes to a very unsatisfying end.

‘Final Destination 5’ is a very satisfying return-to-form for the series, after missteps in the third and especially the fourth installment. The film isn’t a “Best Picture” type of movie, just a fun, amusing, and suspense-filled film with intricate and entertaining death sequences. James Cameron-protege Steven Quale and screenwriter Eric Heisserer have created the second-best installment in the series, after ‘Final Destination 2′. The plot twist in the film’s third act, though slightly predictable by the time the twist actually happens, improves upon the series’ usual formula. But what takes the cake in the entire film is its ending, one that will be sure to make fans of the ‘Final Destination’ series smirk oh-so wickedly.

Three out of four Kents.

Extra Notes:

• Tony Todd, who portrays the mortician in almost all of the previous ‘Final Destination’ films, returns again in this film, offering more advice to the survivors. How Todd’s character is so informed and knowledgable about death’s design is once again left unexplained, but at least he adds yet another new addition to the franchise: the idea that if a survivor killed someone else in their place, they’d cheat death again and live all of the lives that killed person would have lived. It’s an idea seemingly taken directly from ‘Death Note’, but it’s a fun one that makes ‘Final Destination 5’ just a vast improvement upon the third and fourth films.

• Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (‘The Bold and the Beautiful’) is just stunningly gorgeous in this film. She’s certainly eye-candy for the film (and ironically her character’s eye gets destroyed from the laser eye surgery accident).

• The bridge collapse is probably one of the best premonition sequences in the series, after the second film’s pile-up. The pile-up from ‘Final Destination 2’ has even been praised by the great Quentin Tarantino (‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Kill Bill’ & ‘Inglourious Basterds’).

• The last part of the film, right before the credits, is almost just as good as the film’s introductory sequences. It’s a montage of the series’ “Greatest Deaths,” and it puts the 3D to great use, again. It’s the type of concluding montage that compliments the film’s surprise ending, reminding everyone that the series is back in full-form, ready to introduce more deaths in future installments. And hopefully the future installments don’t make the same mistakes as ‘FD3’ and ‘The Final Destination’.

• Though the ‘Final Destination’ series has never been great at character development, ‘Final Destination 5’ at least tries to go in that area with the sub-plot involving Sam and his girlfriend’s relationship issues. Though the relationship issue is barely acknowledged by the film, and barely important to the film overall, it at least shows the filmmakers’ attempts to bring the series back from the dead. I commend their attempts, even though it didn’t turn out that well.