The trailer for Final Destination offered a fascinating premise that the grim reaper may stalk you if you somehow escape a pre-ordained catastrophe. Within the first few minutes foretell that film ain't gonna live up to its potential. How many shots of a fan are we supposed to tolerate? Then the production quality and the stilted dialogue of the protagonist's family essentially scream: "made for TV."

There is little wonder about this. Director James Wong IV was an executive producer for the X-files and Millenium TV shows. He makes a very poor transition to the big screen with this movie -- at least in quality.

On the other hand, the box office success of Final Destination has guaranteed that we'll be revisiting the same tired genre of teen slasher flicks we had to endure in the 80's. They won't even have to hire an actor to play the killer since Mr. Death arrives invisibly with the breeze whenever we hear "Rocky Mountain High." If you're saying, "that sounds ridiculous," trust me… it IS ridiculous so save your time and money for another flick.

Either the writers were devoid of imagination, had questionable taste, or figured that the audience was so dumb that we have to be reminded of a real life airline disaster. Unbelievably, the movie begins as a high school class is boarding a flight at JFK for Paris! Why they didn't at least change the destination to another country to avoid the direct comparison to the TWA flight 800 disaster is beyond comprehension.

To make sure that we are aware of the impending disaster, we are clubbed over the head with the following: a book titled This is the End, a close-up of a luggage tag that says "Final Destination," a magazine opened to pictures of Princess Diana's accident, bizarre fluttering of the flight board with close-ups of "Departure" and "Terminal," and John Denver being piped into the restroom as our protagonist Alex (Devon Sawa) recalls how Denver perished in a plane crash.

The best sequence comes next, but don't look for it to be played the next time you take a trans-Atlantic flight. Alex has a vivid premonition about the impending crash with some excellent special effects that made me feel the sheer horror passengers must go through in these times. When he awakens, Alex goes almost as crazy as John Lithgrow does in Twilight Zone: the Movie, and is evicted from the plane along with five other students and a teacher.

As we already knew from the trailer and the numerous "clues," the plane explodes. But instead of being grateful, some of the survivors and some vulture-like FBI agents are suspicious of Alex. Can Alex predict the future? What if Fate decides that the survivors are still destined to die? Does he know who will die next? These are interesting questions to explore, and were the main ones that inspired me to check out this film. Unfortunately, the execution of the plot treads familiar ground that smells of "rip off."

It turns out that characters start dying off at a rapid rate, just like the teen slasher genre that spawned this uninspired film. The patterns are formulaic. Within minutes I was able to figure out which character(s) would be alive at the end since the rules are basically the same: anyone who acts obnoxious, behaves stupidly, or engages in premarital sex is doomed. To "modernize" the genre and bring Final Destination to the new century, the standards have widened a bit -- it may now be possible to survive even if you look at a Hustler magazine or use the "F" word. Just don't listen to John Denver singing "Rocky Mountain High."

Granted, the first teen death after the disaster is done fairly well. Wong even incorporates commonly known Native American symbolism by using an owl to foreshadow death as Alex receives his first clue.

However, Wong is no Hitchcock (even if he demeans the master's name by using it as a character name). Forget about suspense. That would require character development so we'd actually care about the teens who are about to meet their doom. That would require investing in a quality screenwriter. Instead, the second death occurs abruptly with a quick "splat." If its only purpose is to make the audience jump for a split second, the scene does succeed.

It turns out that Alex now has figured out the grim reaper's pattern after being warned by an especially weird mortician that Death is coming back at him and has a design. It turns out that Death is picking off the teens and teacher in the order that they would have died on the plane. So Alex's task becomes figuring out how to disrupt Death's pattern. A daunting task since Death stalks them in so many mediums-gas, liquid, trains, knives, metal shards, gyrating electrical wires, and John Denver songs.

This movie was written for teen audiences. All the adults are characterized superficially and are unsympathetic to the younger generation. I'm sure that the film executives are hoping for a teen hit along the lines of other similar in the genre. But don't bet on it. It's basically a re-tread of the mediocre Friday the 13th series.