ugh…
Final Destination 3 (2006)
Directed By: James Wong (Final Destination)
The Prologue
So when the original director of Final Destination returned in Final Destination 3, one could have only assumed it meant things were on the up and up with the promise of a third perfectly acceptable film in the series. Right?? I mean how could it go wrong?..Well, it did kinda go wrong now didn’t it? You got an OK disaster going down, you got Tony Todd doing creepy voice overs, I mean heck, we even have Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the lead! But somehow, things still didn’t work out very well for Final Destination 3. If part 2 was a step back, this was a fall down the hill.
The Movie
When Wendy Christensen has a vision of an accident on the roller coaster, resulting in her and her friends’ deaths, she instantly begins to panic, causing more of her friends to be left of the ride. The remaining friends, including Wendy’s boyfriend, are stuck on the roller coaster and find themselves involved in the accident. With death waiting around the corner, Wendy and Kevin Fischer must try and work out death’s plan, before they and the remaining survivors end up dead.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead!!!! There, I have that out of my system now. Her being in this film is good, but sadly her character (our lead) really isn’t. Her and everyone else here just seems kinda there and going through the motions from start to finish. I’d go as far as to say that they all even seem really bored at times, and that’s never a good thing. Especially when it’s shining through the screen to a point it’s noticeable. And some these actors (like Texas Battle who is currently a soap star) have went on to have pretty productive careers. But what’s wrong with them here? Are they really stoned or something? Or perhaps they knew it was just a bad movie.
We also have our annoying little friend called “bad CGI” who returns with an unwanted visit in this film. Some stuff just doesn’t look right, and then you have deaths that just seem to kinda lack imagination from the first two. I hate to say that our director seemed to have ran dry on ideas or got lazy here, but I think he either ran out of ideas or got really lazy here. Besides a tanning bed death that you’ll remember for obvious reasons (if you are a straight man or a lesbian), there isn’t much here to right home about outside a head smashing that still lacks greatly. Maybe our pal “death” here was just having an off day?
If I did enjoy anything about this film, it would be the look of it at the beginning. I think the fair/carnival look really looks nice on screen and all the lights just set things off in a very good way. And take it from a guy that took three ours to talk himself into getting on a roller coaster once at Dollywood, that a roller coaster can be very intense and scary business. Had I seen this movie before I did that, I bet you I would have never gotten on that ride. Maybe I should also note I haven’t been on one since seeing this movie. But outside the roller coaster stuff and it’s setting, everything else just seems like a real snooze fest more or less.
The Conclusion
You have Mary Elizabeth Winstead (the look at not acting wise here), two hot naked girls in a tanning bed, and a cool setting at the start of the film, outside of that I’d say you have nothing else to see here. It’s not the most exciting entry into the franchise, and the ending is probably far too predictable. But in horror the show must go on, and on it did go with another part to follow this. But don’t worry, if you acted like part 3 was never made I don’t think many people will blame you.
The Rating (5.5/10)
