Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Feb 10, 2006 15:56:18 GMT -5
Plot:Set six years after the original Final Destination film, the latest installment in the series centers around a high school senior who has a premonition of a fatal roller coaster accident involving herself and all her friends. When the premonition proves true, those who have “cheated death” and survived the accident are forced to deal with the repercussions of escaping their fate.
Cast:
Ryan Merriman
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Texas Battle
Alexz Johnson
Sam Easton
Kris Lemche
Jesse Moss
Gina Holden
Chelan Simmons
My Thoughts:Unusually good for the third film in a series which at this point relies more on visual shock effects while carrying a recycled story.
Review:Everyone knows what the "Final Destination" films are about at this point. The original "Final Destination" offered up a unique premise. Death itself as the slasher who is claiming the lives of a group of young people. "Final Destination 2" operated on the same thesis but connected it's new crop of potential victims to the events that transpired in the original movie. "Final Destination 3" doesn't connect to the first two movies via it's new fresh faces, but it does keep the continuity chains strong by throwing the audience mentions of flight 180, the "order that they were supposed to die in" scenario, and the highway accident from "Final Destination 2". In "Final Destination 3", a group of kids on their senior trip are deaths target this time around. Were introduced to pretty much all the kids before the huge roller coaster disaster (more on that later). The main kids in the film are Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Kevin (Ryan Merriman), Lewis (Texas Battle), Frankie (Sam Easton), Erin (Alexz Johnson), and Ian (Kris Lemche), while everyone else are pretty much relegated to minor players. It isn't long before "Final Destination 3" begins to feel like a "Final destination" film, which is what I like most about these movies. They really don't waste any time setting up the horror which is soon to come. Like usual, one of the kids in this movies case Wendy, is given some eerie signs that death is lurking around and waiting to strike. Switching gears from the first two movies where the premonitions came from within, in this movie Wendy gets her early signs from some polaroids she takes of her classmates...one of the more interesting ones being a picture of a ride called "The High Dive", which in Wendys picture, the only letters that show up are D-I-E.
This kind of weirdness continues until Wendy gets her major premonition which is...*drum roll* the huge coaster scene! Now this scene is not as cool as the highway pile up in part 2 (my opinion) but it kicks the ass of the airplane scene in "Final Destination". It's much more graphic and it's very effective because of a few things, number one being the atmosphere. Because the coaster is called "The Devils Flight", the talking replica of the devil, and the red cavern like entrance to the ride helps to first set up future events nicely. The big accident scene itself is visually impressive because of the great camera angles and camera work involved in the scene. We get to see the coaster cars leave the launching pad, go up the hill and all of that stuff. James Wong does an excellent job capturing the tension and suspense in this scene. Thats all I'm going to give away about the coaster scene but it's very impressive, take my word for it. Wendy flips out and demands to get off the rollercoaster after forseeing future events, and this prompts a handful of other kids to get off as well. They're the lucky ones, as the doomed coaster takes off with those left behind assured of a gruesome death. The aforementioned accident helps to set up some interesting interaction among the survivors as the film moves along because of who dies and who survives the coaster catastrophe. But this is where the real fun begins as death starts wacking people in freak accidents. The deaths in "Final Destination 3" are a step above the ones in part 2 and pretty much every one of them will make you cringe at how vicious and twisted they are.
The deaths in "FD3" are so horrific you'll feel pity for the characters even though you know it's just a movie...seriously, some real rough stuff happens to these kids. Another thing to like about "Final destination 3" is that it strips the overall story down to barebones but still manages to keep some meat on the plot. The exposition and various subplots in "Final Destination 2" aren't present in the third movie...but because of the much improved set up scenes which lead to each characters specific deaths, and the usage of Wendys polaroids which give a clue as to how each character will meet their demise, "Final destination 3" avoids getting boring when no ones being sliced and diced or crushed by something. The death scenes themselves are very hard to pinpoint because Glen Morgan and James Wong really keep us guessing with the script. When you think a main character might die, sometimes they flip the script and take out a non main character. The performances by the cast are also pretty strong, with Winstead, Merriman, and Lemche being the best of them all. Lemche specifically gives his best performance in the films final act which takes place at the towns centennial celebration. "Final Destination 3" is an awesome third installment and as I said in MY THOUGHTS...shows no sign of slowing down or getting stale anytime soon...despite the fact that most horror series are an inch from packing it in when they hit movie number 3. This series can keep going for atleast 2 more films if they keep putting the usual creativity into the script, and keep coming up with new and more twisted,bloody, and gorier deaths to top the deaths seen in the previous "Final destination" movies. Theres also a nice surprise thrown in for the films climax which I won't give away except to say that it rivals the comedic note "Final Destination 2" ended on.
Pros:Strong lead characters, VERY HIGH blood and gore factor, very vicious demises as expected, great camera work, very effective death scenes, and the coaster catastrophe is very nicely done.
Cons:The ending is kind of auspicious and kind of leaves things on an "unfinished business" note which is a con because the first two movies wrapped up more tightly.
I read that they were planning on bringing back Kimberly and the cop from "Final destination 2" for the ending but couldn't work things out. I think that might have been a better way to end things than what we got. Still, the theatrical ending isn't too bad, I just wanted more closure.
Overall:Definitely a must see for fans of mindless gore and mutilation, horror fans, "Final destination" series fans, or if you're just looking for a hack and slash film to see with a date who herself is also into this sort of stuff. "Final destination 3" is a wild, and fun ride with something for every horror movie fan to enjoy.