Final Destination 5 (2011)

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What does it say about a horror movie -- especially the fifth in a long considered DOA franchise -- that you simply want the storyline to stop and the inventive deaths to occur? Let's face it -- the Final Destinationfilms have long since stopped being interesting as expressions of dread. Instead, it's the creative kills that keep us locked in. This time around, the splatter is just as spiffy, but missing is a sense of urgency, as if the series has actually caught up with the fanbase and realizes no one care about the characters. Still, first time director Steven Quale wants to get all touchy-feely with the targeted individuals and their emotional motives. All we end up caring about is the blood.

After they survive a horrific bridge collapse, the so-called "Lucky Eight" of a local corporate manufacturing interest become convinced that Death itself is out to take back what it has been cheated out of. For wannabe chef Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto), his on-again, off again girlfriend Molly (Emma Bell), co-workers Peter (Miles Fisher), Candice (Ellen Wroe), Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), Isaac (P.J. Byrne), and Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta), as well as their boss Dennis (David Koechner), it appears they are destined to die, one by one. According to a mysterious coroner named Bludworth (Tony Todd), the only way they can escape their fate is to take the life of another. As they begin to perish in more and more peculiar ways, a Federal Agent (Courtney B. Vance) tries to establish some kind of pattern. Of course, when dealing with something as diabolical as the Grim Reaper, all bets are off.

Lacking the spark and spunk of previous installments, Final Destination 5 -- supplanting the supposed finale from two years ago tagged The Final Destination -- is a so-so pseudo slasher. Taking the slice and dice dynamic and modifying it via a supernatural stalker, the results are basically the same as when Jason Voorhees gets a wild hair up his hockey mask. Each film starts with a set-piece (airplane crash, traffic accident, amusement park tragedy, NASCAR pile-up) and the near flawless treatment of the suspension bridge collapse prepares us for something special. But then the script, by Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street remake, the upcoming Thing prequel), keeps trying to get us to care, to worry if Sam and Molly will get back together or if Peter will ever get over the death of his beloved...and nothing hinders suspense more than meaningless melodrama.

Luckily, the killings here are top notch. They do the typical Destination thing -- making us believe one item will do the deadly deed (a random screw, an eye surgeon's laser) before changing up and going all Rube Goldberg on our expectations. Brains fly. Guts explode. Heads are crushed, and torsos are eviscerated. By the time we get to the twist ending (and it's a good one), we've once again experienced a madman's imagination's worth of wounds. Quale's lack of experience can't undermine the fun,. Even the unnecessary 3D fails to put a damper on our brazen cinematic bloodlust.

Since it delivers what we expect in the manner in which we expect it, Final Destination 5succeeds. It's no classic, and one can easily see the studio continuing to milk this material as long as there are screenwriters capable of concocting crazier and crazier deaths. A word to the wise -- next time, nix all the unnecessary character development and personal backstory.  We fans just want to see gore...and when we get it, the flaws in Final Destination 5 are all but forgotten.
 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

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Ever since Charlton Heston crumbled in the rising surf, realizing that the alien world overrun by intelligent primates on which he had been marooned was actually Earth thousands of years in the future, Hollywood has tried to trump the original Planet of the Apes. From several early sequels(Beneath, Escape, Conquest, Battle) to a TV series and a misguided 2001 reboot (which director Tim Burton still wishes he could forget), the lure of evolution spiraling out of control has just been too great to avoid. Now, Fox is once again offering a complete overhaul of the franchise, giving us a brand new explanation for the end of humanity and the rise of the chimp. Luckily, it's a late Summer season surprise, a throwback to the days when science fiction could have heart...and a little horror...as part of its often solemn designs.

Will Rodman (James Franco) is an earnest young scientist working on a cure for Alzheimer's Disease. While his company and his boss (David Oyelowo) only see dollar signs, the concerned researcher has a more personal reason for his studies -- his father (John Lithgow) is in the final stages of the disease and Will just can't stand to see him fading away. Unfortunately, most of Will's work is on hold after an "incident" leaves officials less than enthusiastic about further funding. In the aftermath, Will takes a small ape child into his home, hoping to save its life. As the newly dubbed Caesar (Andy Serkis, via motion capture) grows, he shows signs of remarkable intelligence. Later, it's determined that the drug works, and that more animal subjects should be tested. However, when Caesar ends up in a cruel compound filled with others of his kind, he decides that the real enemy is man...and that man has to be destroyed.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an excellent post-modern meditation on animal rights and human complicity in the continuing fulfillment/failure of same. It's a smooth and slick entertainment, loaded with emotional heartbreak and angering abuse. It sets ups its heroes and villains in strange, restricted strokes and then paints in the subtleties once our simian protagonist prepares for revenge. Make no mistake about it, this is a film founded on payback. Caesar is treated like a nominal entity, fine when he's funny and friendly, relegated to a gulag-like "sanctuary" when his behavior becomes more instinctual and uncontrollable. There is a nice dichotomy between what Franco's Will knows about his ape and what the rest of his neighbors see. Their over-reactionary dread helps fuel the animal's shocking stand at the end.

This is a movie that flows effortlessly from idea to idea; it takes nice natural narrative leaps and hopes the audience will go along for the ride. This is not some goofy or gratuitous attempt to cash in on the series name -- someone clearly sat down and took a serious look at how to recreate the classic scenario (fall of Man, rise of Ape) as well as how to make it resonate with a cynical contemporary crowd. All praise to newcomer Rupert Wyatt, whose direction and sense of spectacle are rooted in ideas, not eye candy. The action scenes, when they come, are genuinely exciting and the pathos is clever and well-earned. Even better, it all makes sense.Rise avoids the "Monkey Lincoln" illogic of the 2001 version to, instead, play everything straightforward and sound.

Of course, the excellent CG ape work mostly out-acts its human counterparts and there are a few moments, here and there, where the movie misses opportunities and mishandles important moments. Still, when you consider what it could have become and what it ends up being, Rise of the Planet of the Apes triumphs. It is an excellent example of restrained speculation, something there is very little of in today's slam bang spectacle driven sci-fi
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