ART S The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 17, 2000 - 9 Lacking solid story, 'Destination' hits dead end By Erin Podoisky Daily Arts Writer You have to hand it to James Wong and Glen Morgan: four years of logging time on "The X-Files" taught them nothing if not that set- up is everything, icing on the alien. .. Final Destination Grade: C At Showcase and State ........0 and pay-off the Though they left the paranoia- driven show in its heydey a few years back, they took with them a sense of a grand design and conspiracy that reared its head in subse- quent televi- sion series they had a hand in, including "Mil- lennium," and now in their from the Cigarette Smoking Man, whatever) and has a premonition of the plane exploding in a magnifi- cent mid-air fireball. When he awakes from his nightmare, he flips out and is bodily removed from the plane. The airline officials won't let him or the several students and teachers who hustled him off the jet back on. He sits outside the gate in one of those uncomfortable airport chairs, staring at the great beast gracefully arc into the night sky while trying to ignore the burning, blaming eyes of his disgruntled peers. He sits, that is, until his vision becomes a reality. The plane deto- nates, his class is killed and he and Tod (Chad Donella), Clear (Ali Larter), Terry (Amanda Detmer), Carter (Kerr Smith), Billy (Seann William Scott) and Ms. Lewton (Kristen Cloke) are left to try to survive, well, surviving. It's not easy being Alex in those subsequent weeks, the pressure of survival hanging over him, the feeling that all is not quite right. It gets even tougher when the sur- vivors start dying under the strangest of circumstances, one at a time. Not only does Alex desperate- ly need to find out how and why these things are happening, he's under suspicion (and eventually on the run) from the FBI. Clear offers him sanctuary and understanding, but only to a point. The remaining don't tell, I guess. Thankfully, the movie doesn't go on forever and force us to see every character die. Then again, that's what sequels are for. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave some of the kids alive and kicking after all. There are a lot of likable ele- ments to "Final Destination," chief among them its excellent opening and eye-catching premise. But it drops the ball as the kids start dying, sinking into typical "who's next?" horror genre requirements. It's one thing to do this in a movie like "Scream," where it's intended as self-referential parody. It's quite another to do it in earnest. Maybe twenty years ago "Final Destina- tion" would have been scary. It's our loss that we know too much now, expect the twists right where they're written. The elaborate deaths planned out for each character seem little more than a one-upmanship contest a couple of writers decided to have when bored. While some of the schemes are (intentionally) orig- inal, their sense of boredom trans- fers to us and it ain't pretty. The cast doesn't help, either, with nary a better-than-mediocre performance to be found among them. "Final Destination" would have been better served if it had been Agents Mulder and Scully who investigate first the plane crash, then the mystery surrounding the subsequent survivors' deaths. It's practically screaming for a little bit of Mulder's wry commentary or Scully's patented skepticism. But why stop there? "Final Destination" sounds like a sweeps episode of "The X-Files" before you set foot in the theater; when you walk out, it still does, but it also reeks of the most unsuccessful aspects of the great television series - shock value in place of story developient, a convenient conspiracy theorythat isn't all that great once it becomes non-theoretical and the distinct lack of Moose and Squirrel. The point of speculating about what could have been is this: Great after-school spe- cial. Lousy flick. DAILYARTS HAS FREE 'FINAL DESTINATION' POSTERS FOR YOU. STOP IN, THE ARTS OFFICE TODAY. SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED. first big-screen effort, "Final Desti- nation." "Final Destination" starts off with a killer (no pun intended) XF-esque set-up, one that acts as an apolo- getic preamble for the predictable (if not at least gorily entertaining) paths that the film later traverses. Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) is about to embark on a class trip to Paris - is in fact seated on the plane just before take-off -- when he taps into something (subcon- scious, a psychic field, a message Courtesy of New Lne Cinema A man with a vision, Devon Sawa stars In New line Cinema's "Final Destination." students and Ms. Lewton offer even less, fearing what they believe are his psychic powers and refusing to follow his advice about their impending deaths. And Alex? He makes the brilliant deduction that because they cheated death by not getting on the ill-fated plane, the grim reaper is hot on their collective tail to take what he thinks is rightfully his. He also decides that he should save his peers yet again, thus interrupting the cycle of death. Of course, he never considers that when death "skips" someone and goes to the next person in his little circle, even- tually ol' grimmy is going to make his way back to the people who were temporarily saved. Don't ask, -~~~~~~9~~~ Are you waiting too long 919 I to make your copies? Report Binding' 1" or less Velo, Spirol or Glue, 65#1covers included, Over 1 1.751 I I | '75'' Color Copies I 'Only with Coupon; 8.5x1 1;No EdtibgExp.05/ 0 Dollarill 611 Church Street Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (734) 665-9200 9 (fax) 930-2800 Come to Dollar Bill , , We'll get your projects done quickly and efficiently. Without u the wait. a i J 7% moo IF Congratulations The following students will be among those recognized during the Honors Convocation program on Sunday, March 19, 2000. These individuals have demonstrated the highest level of undergraduate academic success by achieving seven or more consecutive terms of all A's and earning the designation of Angell Scholar. The University of Michigan congratulates these students on their superior scholastic achievement and wishes them continued success. Seven Term Angell Scholars Aaron Dominic Aguirre Andrew James Aguirre Mary Ahwal Melike Bayram Theodore Alexander Betley Lindsay Rose Boynton Oren Cahlon Brian Christopher Callaghan Meredith Sue Chan*. Jennifer M. Childs. Danielle Marie Cross Donald Brett Desander Shannon Marie Farkas Andrew Michael Floyd* Ronald Frazier* College of Engineering College of Literature, Science, and the Arts - Inteflex College of Engineering and Computer Science- U-M Dearborn College of Literature, Science, and the Arts * College of Engineering College of Literature, Science, and the Arts - Inteflex College of Literature, Science, and the Arts * College of Literature, Science, and the Arts College of Engineering School of Management U-M Flint School of Education' Li Liu* Amy Elizabeth Mc Kenna Jason Yen Sen Miao Caroline Ruth Morgan Jennifer Danielle Munfakh Timothy Donald Mygatt* Darren Neubauer Katie Marie Phillips* Scott Alan Shaw* Virginia Skiba* Sarah Lynn Snyder Shelly Lyn Solem* Andrea Dawn Stutzman Krian Upatkoon School of Management U-M Dearborn School of Music College of Engineering College of Literature, Science, and the College of Engineering College of Literature, Science, and the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters U-M Dearborn College of Literature, Science, and the College of Engineering College of Literature, Science, and the School of Business Administration Division of Kinesiology School of Nursing College of Engineering Arts Arts Arts Arts Eight Term Angell Scholars College of Engineering College of Literature, Science, College of Literature, Science, College of Engineering and Co Science U-M Dearborn and the Arts and the Arts )mputer Brian Eric Beal* Leonard Dennis Cassady* Jennifer L. Cohen Aaron Edward Leanhardt* Andlrei Toma Nemoianu* College of Engineering College of Engineering College of Arts and Sciences U-M Flint College of Engineering College of Literature. Science. and the Arts -1 i I