Final Destination 3

Plot Synopsis:

During a school field trip to an amusement park, Wendy has a vision of a roller coaster derailing and killing her and several of her classmates. She panics and manages to get herself and a few of her classmates off of the ride before it derails. Death begins coming back to collect. When Wendy starts seeing clues as to how they all die in the pictures she took, she and her best friend’s boyfriend work together to try and put a stop to Death’s plan.

Positives:

So, I think this movie really benefits from having Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the lead. She gives easily the best performance in this movie. Once again, this third film does a good job playing into the franchise’s dark sense of humor. 

Mixed Aspects:

The first thing I want to address here is the kills. The tanning bed and the nail gun are both all timer kills for this franchise. One of the things I think hurts some of the kills here is that this is the point where the franchise starts to become reliant on CGI gore, and it’s hit and miss. The next thing I want to mention is the photograph angle. I think this is a cool idea. I have in the mixed section because outside of this movie the franchise never circles back to it. Finally, this movie only tangentially relates to the first two movies. On one hand, I can appreciate the idea of taking a more standalone approach. But, bringing Tony Todd back to just do some brief voice over work for a couple of scenes feels like a waste of the one consistent franchise actor they still had at this point in time.

Negatives:

There is a part of me that really feels like this movie kind of suffers from the standalone approach. By the end of the second movie, both Alex and Clear are dead. While Kimberly and the cop from the second film are alive, they don’t appear in the franchise moving forward. I bring all of this up because, outside of our main protagonist, I really don’t care about any of these characters. Up to this point, I think the third has a significantly weaker crop of survivors. That brings me to next point, I think this movie has much weaker writing than the first two movies. They pull this gimmick where a twist reveals that Wendy’s sister snuck on the roller coaster with one of her own friends. Up to that point, the sister has basically been a background character, and her friend is killed near the end of the movie, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even get a line. Another issue with the writing I have is how much it feels like they are telling us as opposed to showing. As an example, Wendy talks frequently about how she’s a control freak, but we’re never really shown this particular trait.

Final Thoughts:

Despite the flaws being a lot more noticeable, I still think this actually is a fun little ride of a movie. Some of the writing is wonky and I’m not necessarily a fan of the CGI gore, but I do think some of the kills are still effective, and it benefits by having a good actress in the lead role.

My Rating:

🩸🩸🩸