Final Destination 3

If you don't like any of the Final Destination movies then don't even bother with this one, because it is basically identical to its predecessors. There is one new tiny twist, but for all intents and purposes, this sequel merely serves up a fresh batch of teenagers to be mercilessly slaughtered by Death before one or two of the central characters figures out how to temporarily beat Death's design. If you liked either of the first two Final Destinations then I guarantee you will like this one as well.

This time Death decides to kill a group of teenagers on a rollercoaster. But, once again Death is unable to resist being a smug little showboat about his grand design, so he allows one of the teenagers, Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), to have a premonition about it, presumably so he can impress her with his grandiose strategical skills. Wendy is a little less inspired than she is frantic after having seen precisely how she and her classmates will die, so she insists on being let off the ride before it begins. Sure enough, the roller coaster crashes in a freak accident mere seconds later, leaving those who disembarked along with Wendy now squarely in front of Death's crosshairs. And Death is super pissed this time, understandably annoyed that his meticulously plotted design has been thwarted all because he had to show off to some chick that he was going to kill anyway.

Death gets to work immediately, first killing off the less important characters in the most sadistic manner imaginable so that the main ones can be left for a suspenseful scene at the end of the movie. Death, always thinking about building dramatic tension. For a good portion of the time Death seems content to just cause the wind to blow ominously every time there is a pause in the dialogue, but since he's no slacker he gets right back to work coming up with ridiculously complicated cause/effect procedures for the next kill. Meanwhile, the hopeless teenagers scramble about looking at pictures of themselves taken right before the freak roller coaster accident in order to determine how Death plans to kill them on his second attempt. Not all of the roller coaster survivors take Wendy seriously, however, so they are punished for their lack of faith by dying in grisly yet wonderfully orchestrated death traps.

I seriously didn't realize how incredibly pissed Death was at having failed with his roller coaster plan--he's really getting a bit uptight lately. The death scenes were actually comical in their gruesomeness, but I suspect that this was intentional. And perhaps I've finally become desensitized to bad dialogue, but I didn't think the script or storyline for this film was all that terrible--at least, not for a movie of this sort anyway. There's nothing really surprising in this movie for those who have watched the first two films, although the level of gore in this one was a bit of a jolt. I suppose the lesson here is not to mess with Death's design when it's "that time of the month" for him. I have to say I was definitely entertained though, at times laughing even as I felt extremely tense.

I recommend Final Destination 3 to anyone who liked the first two movies, or to anyone who enjoys teenybopper horror films. Me, I'm anxious to see what they come up with for the next sequel. Final Destination 4: Death Vs the I.R.S. Whoever wins, we lose. Damnit I should have been a Hollywood screenwriter!