Steven Quale
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Connections, in both directions
Still, this one is arguably the best of the franchise since writer-director James Wong’s first Final Destination in 2000, although the rote dialogue and plot-free proceedings courtesy of Jeffrey Reddick and Eric Heisserer (who also wrote the 2010 version of A Nightmare on Elm Street) aren’t getting any credit.
Screenwriter Eric Heisserer (who wrote last year’s A Nightmare on Elm Street reboot) introduces a new wrinkle to the Final Destination mythology: Victims can escape their destiny by offering a fresh corpse in their place.
Taking the tried-and-true formula any fan of Death's cinematic design will know intimately by now, director Quale and screenwriter Eric Heisserer (2010's " A Nightmare on Elm Street ") playfully twist expectations just enough for what happens to feel ghoulishly inspired rather than a strict retread.
The writer, Eric Heisserer, who worked on last years A Nightmare on Elm Street remake, manages to find a couple small variations on the familiar theme, including a pleasant surprise in the last reel, but by and large the dialogue is unimaginative and mechanical.
One exception is Ali Larter, who starred in the first two movies, then became one of the key characters in NBC's hit sitcom "Heroes" and star of the hit thriller Obsessed and appeared in the "Resident Evil" movies, but the only other actor who has gone on to do anything of significance since being in the "Final Destination" franchise is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, star of the third movie, who starred in last year's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.
Steven Quale, having previously co-directed 2005's IMAX documentary "Aliens of the Deep" with James Cameron, takes over the reigns here from James Wong (who helmed 2000's still-tops " Final Destination " and 2006's " Final Destination 3 ") and David R. Ellis (2003's " Final Destination 2 " and 2009's stupidly-titled " The Final Destination "), and it turns out he's the electric paddles this series needed to jump-start its flagging pulse.
That simple and yet boggling idea served as inspiration for one of the few original horror franchises of the aughts, the Final Destination films.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Directed by Roland Emmerich
influenced Into the Storm (2014)
Plot Themes
It’s like Roland Emmerich made a preposterous two-and-a-half-hour climate-change disaster flick — *cough* 2012 *cough* The Day After Tomorrow *cough* — and then someone went in and cut out most of the cheesy melodrama: the subsumed personal issues that come to the fore in the face of certain death, the contrived heat-of-the-moment romances, the triumph-of-the-human-spirit moments when the music swells and the tears are jerked.
Whereas disaster epics like The Towering Inferno or even (god help us) The Day After Tomorrow took sick pleasure in establishing clichéd but likable characters that their environment could entertainingly murder – and then went to the trouble of actually filming it so we could tell what was going on – the dirty documentary style of Into the Storm only calls attention to how fake its characters and situations really are.
Unlike worst case disaster films like “2012” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” tornadoes and hurricanes are a bit too common these days.
The story — if it can be called that — seems to have taken its chief inspiration from the Spielberg War of the Worlds (2005).
It’s like Roland Emmerich made a preposterous two-and-a-half-hour climate-change disaster flick — *cough* 2012 *cough* The Day After Tomorrow *cough* — and then someone went in and cut out most of the cheesy melodrama: the subsumed personal issues that come to the fore in the face of certain death, the contrived heat-of-the-moment romances, the triumph-of-the-human-spirit moments when the music swells and the tears are jerked.
Sometimes it’s only slightly less dumb than “2012.”
Unlike worst case disaster films like “2012” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” tornadoes and hurricanes are a bit too common these days.
The original Final Destination did it rather well.
Eric Heisserer’s script is clunky and off-tone often enough to remind you that, in addition to adapting Arrival, he also wrote Final Destination 5. (No knock on that film, really, but it’s not exactly premium material.)
In adapting 'Story of Your Life' by Ted Chiang, genre screenwriter Eric Heisserer (Final Destination 5, Lights Out) filters sweeping themes through the intimate experiences of reserved linguistics expert Dr Louise Banks ( Amy Adams ).