Overall Rating
 Awesome: 13.01%
Worth A Look: 28.46%
Average: 26.83%
Pretty Bad: 18.7%
Total Crap: 13.01%
12 reviews, 51 user ratings
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| Final Destination 3 |
by William Goss
"Hurts So Good"
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You know the drill: young adult has vivid premonition of tragic accident, saves themselves and their friends from said accident, Death begins to kill off the survivors with quite elaborate means. Yeah, it may be a formula, but the 'Final Destination' franchise has fully embraced this blueprint in all its gory glory. The latest contribution to the series, 'Final Destination 3,' is no exception, delivering the gruesome goods in spades while maintaining the same sickly satisfaction that made its predecessors so appealing.At the local grad night celebration, Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) foresees a rollercoaster disaster and manages to save several of her classmates before the doomed ride departs. Sure enough, the accident occurs as expected, and everyone’s favorite reaper decides to play catch-up by taking out the remaining students in methods that would make Rube Goldberg cringe. Taking a page from The Omen, Wendy and Kevin (Ryan Merriman) happen to find clues to their peer’s demises in photos taken before the accident, and it is this narrative thread that propels the film from death scene to death scene. Once each morbid Mouse Trap gets going, the film offers grisly knee-jerk fun as a result of the string of creatively staged executions. It wouldn’t be fair to spoil any of the scares, so let’s just say that fans are unlikely to be disappointed.
The three-quel marks the return of director James Wong and co-writer Glen Morgan, the pair behind the first one and not the second, which had a more campy tone compared to its kin. Wong knows that the story needs little set-up and manages to keep his priorities in order, kicking things off with a gut-wrenching opener and then mercifully killing off the one-note characters with relatively simple schemes before devoting more time to endangering the leads in increasingly intricate fashion. The frights are more fun than anything, and more so than the others, FD3 goes out of its way to set up excessive potential for casualties, so much that the threat rarely comes from where expected. With red herrings and arterial spray abound, the film achieves a supreme sense of gratification with each and every fatality.
None of the preceding cast returns this time, save for a voice cameo by Tony Todd, who previously appeared as an ever-ominous mortician, providing the opportunity for fresh faces to alleviate any sense of monotony between bloodshed. The deaths come in a suitable rhythm, establishing a worthy balance of jolts and jokes, and despite some awfully time-consuming opening credits, the film maintains an admirable sense of efficiency throughout.Just before seeing 'FD3,' I had to endure 'The Pink Panther,' a film utterly devoid of any tact or nuance. However, a complete lack of subtlety works wonders for something like this series. While the prospect of a fourth entry seems tiring, in three years, the genre may be begging for a fresh coat of blood. Thanks to its sheer simplicity and modest intentions, the 'Final Destination' films are one of the most steadily satisfying and endearing franchises around, horror or otherwise. After all, the gore, the merrier.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=13933&reviewer=409
originally posted: 02/12/06 21:25:59
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USA
10-Feb-2006 (R)
DVD: 25-Jul-2006
UK
10-Feb-2006
Australia
27-Apr-2006
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