“Final Destination 3” (New Line Cinema)
It’s Dj Vu All Over Again
The original “Final Destination” was a success because it had an original storyline and some interesting characters. But leave it to Hollywood to drain every last bit of money out of the concept. They gave us “Final Destination 2” which was basically a remake of the original, and now we have “Final Destination 3” which is more of the same. Get with it people, you are watching the same movie over and over!
Once again we have a situation involving a group of high school kids. This time they are at an amusement park for a graduation party. Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is busily taking pictures of her classmates for the school yearbook. She is also trying to talk her boyfriend out of making her take a ride on a giant roller coaster.
Before the class takes the roller coaster ride Wendy has a premonition and starts screaming that it is going to crash. The ride operators let her and a few others off the ride and the rest of the class goes on to their doom. Wendy and the survivors are left to attend the funerals.
After a day or so new deaths begin to occur, and they occur in the order of the way the “survivors” were seated on the ride. Wendy’s friend, and fellow survivor Kevin (Ryan Merriman), points this line up of deaths out to her. Together they try to find a way to prevent any more untimely deaths.
The rest of the film is like a game of dominos. The young cast gets lined up and you watch them fall to the grim reaper. If you like seeing young people meet their fate in a variety of ways then you might get some fun out of this film. For everyone else the movie is just a rehash of the first two movies and that gets old fast.
The film is rated R for profanity, nudity and violence.
Winstead and Merriman are fine in their roles. They are enjoyable for the duration of the film and then completely forgettable. This is true of everyone in the cast. There is not a single standout. They are cookie cut characters living it up to the point when they die
Even when it is the third installment of a movie series you still have the right to expect something new and unusual in the presentation. That is where this movie fails. There is nothing new, nothing unique, nothing remotely different from the pattern of the first film. It is dj vu all over again.
I scored “Final Destination 3” a three-peat 3 out of 10.
