I loved the beginning - with all the references to previous Final Destination deaths. I didn't notice it until I saw the sunbed reference and then Lewis's death from FD3. Nice effect.
The main character was pretty likeable. A decent enough actor, but I wasn't sure if I liked the "characters" as a group. I loved it in the original film because you actually saw the characters for more than just their death scenes. I remember loving the character of Clear because we got to learn about her and relate with her. In the second film we had Clear return but we also got to know Rory, Eugene and Kat. The third film we seen everyone in the premonition, then the only time we saw them again was when they got killed, thus provoking a "who gives a shit if they die" response from me. In this film I am glad we got to see the characters in more scenes than just their deaths.
The story itself wasn't explained well, IMO. The beauty of the original film is that Death was actually a character who was intent on killing the survivors. There was no way to escape Death and it WOULD get you. In this film it was like "okay so the main character has visions of who's going to die next", there was no real focus on Death itself being the one who kills them. Sure we saw objects move by themselves but I don't know, I can't explain it well, but if I was new to the FD franchise i'd probably just guess that the reason they all died was because the main character was a nutter and had visions of people dying.....not because Death itself had a plan for everyone.
I hated the 3D element. At times it felt completely unnecessary and almost unconvincing. Some of the deaths looked completely fake and badly "computerised", for example the impalement of someones face at the race track. It just looked like the makers had gotten a video of a stick and placed it in the guys head and added a "splash blood" effect. Nowhere near as realistic looking as Perry's death from FD3, or Kat's death from FD2.
The deaths themselves were clever enough. I found myself hiding behind my eyes when Janet was in the car wash, I was almost relieved that she survived, it looked like it would have been a terrifying ordeal.
The rude guys death in the swimming pool was disgusting, but also shocking because I remember a kid went on holiday this year and got sucked through one of those drains, it was in the papers.
The build up and tension for his and Janet's ordeals was pretty exciting, it was almost a case of who was going to get killed first. The man who set himself on fire's death was pretty dumb, IMO. It wasn't jumpy, it wasn't disgusting, and in fact there were people in the cinemas giggling at the silly drunk man who was being dragged down the road on fire. It just wasn't a Final Destination death at all. The mothers death was really well done, IMO. I kept thinking that she was going to be killed in the salon, but then I remembered the kiRAB throwing the stones outside and when she said "i'm keeping my EYE on you"to her kiRAB I turned to my friend and said "she's gonna get hit in the eye" and what do you know, she did. Disgusting, jumpy and I almost felt sad at the kiRAB yelling and crying at their mum's death. Lori's death on the escalator was disgusting, too.
Did I like the ending? No, not really. You can always tell that something horrible is going to happen when the final scene is with the characters convinced they're safe. The truck thing and the skeletons was a great effect.
Deaths - Rank - FD2, FD3, FD4, FD1
Opening premonition - FD1, FD2, FD3, FD4
Likeability of main character - FD1, FD4, FD2, FD3
Suspense/Tension - FD4, FD2, FD3, FD1
Acting - FD1, FD2, FD4, FD3
Effects - FD3, FD1, FD2, FD4
Overall - FD1, FD2, FD4, FD3
Plenty of room for another sequel.
