Knee-jerk review: "Final Destination Bloodlines"

1. Yeah, this is a pretty hard R.  A whole lot of blood and gore.  If you're into that sort of thing, you won't be disappointed.
2. We remember the first three pretty well: the one with plane crash (Final Destination, 2000), the one with the logging truck accident (Final Destination 2, 2003), and the one with the roller coaster derailment (Final Destination 3, 2006).  A check with Wikipedia reminded us there's also the one with the NASCAR race crash (The Final Destination, 2009) and the cool twist where the characters in Final Destination 5 (2011) ended up on the plane crash from Final Destination in 2000.  Oops.  
3. The whole premise of this franchise is ingenious - it's not only easy to understand the rules (escape death in a mass casualty event, death will come after you by any means necessary as soon as possible), but the movies get the chance to concoct all kinds of elaborately grisly accidental deaths.  Aside from horrific "OMG!" deaths so completely insane you almost have to laugh, however, the movies all sort of run together.
4. That said, this one feels different.  Bloodlines takes more time to develop the characters, all of whom are related.  These aren't high school acquaintances or grumpy strangers; these people all have long histories and complex relationships with each other.  Which means the threat they're facing packs a much bigger dramatic punch.
5. The whole generational "bloodlines" thing also adds a fresh spin to the premise.
6. You make a movie in Canada to get those tax breaks, you end up with a no-name Canadian cast.  Decent, but vanilla.
7. The lead actress in particular is a little bland.  She looks 35 but is playing a college student presumably in only her sophomore or junior year.
8. Opening 20 minutes are pretty incredible if you like disaster scenes.  Wow.
9. We spent the whole movie thinking the mom character was played by an older Lara Flynn Boyle.  No, it's someone named Rya Kihlstedt.
10. Bonus points for a couple of very fun plot twists involving how (if at all) one might cheat death.
11. Of course, most of these deaths go beyond horrible happenstance.  An MRI machine isn't going to turn on, for example, just because a clipboard falls onto a keyboard.
12. Not to get all film theory on you, but movies - like any art - reflect the cultural zeitgiest from which they come.  This is a series of movies that reminds audiences over and over that death is not only inexorable and inevitable, but extremely painful and awful.  That's a pretty dark sentiment.  Smarter people than us will have to explore why a movie with this hopeless a message has resonated with such a wide audience ($187 million at the box office and counting) in 2025.  No movie exists in a vacuum.  Choices were also made to revive this franchise after a 15-year absence from theaters.  Yes, it's all about the business decisions of the filmmakers and the studio rights-holders.  Pre-sold brands are always appealing.  But there are always also other forces at play, whether the filmmakers know it or not.  All art - even the cheesiest TV show or most disposable pop song - is political.

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