After the second film having my favorite opening sequence, part three in the Final Destination series has my least favorite opening. The roller coaster of death causes most people to just fall to their deaths. Where’s the fun in that?
While the opening sequence doesn’t really impress, the later scenes of death do. That all leads up to a much better premonition at the end of the film. They should have used the ending to start the film. The deaths here are even more over the top than previous installments and they seem to be leaning into more humorous territory as well. What’s interesting is how the DVD offers up a Choose Your Own adventure kind of idea to the film. You can see alternate deaths as well as prevent the deaths of certain characters. That’s all fun but I have to wonder if filming these extra scenes ended up taking away from the film.
It’s almost as if they’ve given up in the plot department. Poor Tony Todd has become a voice instead of continuing his character, Mr. Bludworth and the only addition to the film is the use of pictures that Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) had taken on the night of the roller coaster crash. These photos seem to give hints as to how the different people will die. I gotta say, if I had to rely on those pictures to save people, we’d all be screwed because none of them made any sense to me.
Yeah, I don't really like roller coasters either.
With character development something that happens in other movies, Final Destination 3 serves up deaths in as bloody a way possible. It also gives us some pretty good nudity, a staple of the horror genre for years. I guess plot means little when boobs and blood are involved. The third film suddenly turns into a typical slasher movie, just without the slasher. Pretty teens get killed and a couple show off their boobs before they bite it. Seems pretty typical to me. Thankfully the way they each die is far from typical. Car engine to the head, nailgun accident, death by tanning bed. They’re impressive, I’ll give them that.
Got something on your mind there buddy?
By the time the third film is coming out, nobody was going into this expecting plot. I’ve read lots of complaints about how the film is generic, it’s not as good as the others, the characters are stupid, I have to wonder what everyone thought was going to happen. The films are celebrated for their creative, and typically gruesome, ways of killing people. I don’t remember any of the previous parts really delivering on the stunning storyline.
Characters here are annoying, much as they were in the first two films. I’ve always hated most of the characters so this wasn’t much of a change. They sure do die real good though! It’s a shame that Tony Todd doesn’t show up again but I love how we get two premonitions in the film, even if they had to film the ending after early test audiences didn’t like the original one. Seems the crowd got that one right.
In the shadows – Will
