To be frank with you, I have somehow avoided watching “Final Destination” and its several sequels during last 25 years. Even when the movie came out in 2000, the movie did not interest me much because it looked like another typical teen slasher horror flick to kill its adolescent characters horribly in one way or another, and then I became less and less interested as its sequels predictably followed since that.

However, as “Final Destination Bloodlines” (2025), the latest entry in the franchise, received a surprising amount of good responses from both critics and audiences, I eventually decided to check out “Final Destination” today, and I duly report to you that it is a fairly watchable horror film even after 25 years. Yes, this is still your average teen slasher horror film (My late mentor/friend Roger Ebert often called such movies “Dead Teenager Movies”, by the way), but it has some nice nasty fun to be appreciated in addition to being relatively more skillful and entertaining than, say, “Friday the 13th” (1980) and its countless sequels.

Right from the very beginning, the movie fills the screen with a lot of ominous signs, so we are already quite ready for something horrible to happen when Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) is about to go to Paris along with his schoolmates and teachers for their senior trip. While everyone is quite excited as they all arrive at the airport, Alex cannot help but feel nervous, and, what do you know, the movie subsequently delivers one of its most effective moments when he gets asleep briefly not long before the departure time of the airplane

Quite shocked and awed by what he experienced so vividly during that brief sleep of his, Alex soon causes a commotion inside the airplane, and he and several other students and one of their teachers ends up remaining in the airport. Needless to say, some of his schoolmates are not so pleased about Alex’s action, but then, surprise, the airplane is suddenly exploded in the air shortly after its takeoff.

While everyone around him is relieved to avoid this devastating disaster which incidentally killed everyone on the airplane, Alex becomes more nervous as gradually sensing something bound to happen sooner or later. It seems that he and several other survivors are still destined to get killed, and he becomes more convinced when one of his fellow survivors suddenly dies due to a horrible accident not long after he receives a sort of sign by sheer coincidence.

What follows next is a series of gruesome scenes where the main characters get horribly killed one by one by due to some malevolent presence which can be regarded as Death itself. While we surely have a very typical scene where one main character suddenly gets hit by a big vehicle appearing out of nowhere, we are also served with a couple of suspenseful sequences which deserve to be compared with those Rube Goldberg machines. It seems that Death is not so pleased to see Alex and the other survivors evade its deadly touch, and it looks like Death has some fun elaborate plans for killing Alex and the other survivors as horribly and inventively as possible (My personal favorite one is the one involved with a certain leaky mug, if you ask me).

Of course, as they come to feel more of the approaching touch of Death, Alex and several remaining survivors desperately try to find any possible way to escape from their hopelessly doomed status. As they become more urgent day by day, they also come to reflect on life, fate, and existence at times, and that surely brings a bit of substance to the story and characters.

Not so surprisingly, the screenplay by director James Wong and his two co-writers Glen Morgan and Jeffrey Reddick becomes rather contrived just for giving its main characters a possibly good chance for survival during the last act, but it keeps things rolling till its expected climax at least. While there is not much surprise there if you are a seasoned moviegoer like me, you will enjoy how the movie tries a lot of things for its grand finale, and you may also chuckle a bit when its ending fatefully opens the door for those sequels to come.

Although Alex and the main characters are more or less than bland archetypes (You may be amused a little by their respective surnames if you are a knowledgeable genre fan, though), the main cast members bring some gravitas to the film via their earnest performance. Devon Sawa, whom I have always remembered for his goofy comic performance in “Idle Hands” (1999), dutifully holds the center as required, and Ali Larter has a little poignant moment as a girl who was already quite unhappy even before she gets doomed along with Alex and their several schoolmates. In case of Kerr Smith, Kristen Cloke, Chad Donella, Amanda Detmer, and Sean William Scott, they manage to leave some impression despite their thankless supporting parts, and Tony Todd, a wonderful character actor who has been known mainly for his unforgettable performance in “Candyman” (1992) and sadly passed away in last year, adds a substantial touch of class to the movie despite his brief appearance in the middle of the film.

Overall, “Final Destination” is a rather passable genre film, but it has its own special place in the teen slasher horror flick territory just like “Friday the 13th” and “Scream” (1996). To be frank with you, I am not so willing to check out those four sequels which came before “Final Destination Bloodlines”, but I think I have got my homework done enough before watching it, and now I am ready to leap forward to that new sequel.