Final Destination 3 (2006) Movie Review
Written By: JASR
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: James Wong
Producers: Richard Brener, Toby Emmerich, et al.
Writers: Glen Morgan, James Wong, and Jeffrey Reddick
Date Released: February 10, 2006 (USA)
Cast:
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Wendy Christensen
Ryan Merriman as Kevin Fischer
Kris Lemche as Ian McKinley
Alexz Johnson as Erin
Sam Easton as Frankie Cheeks
Jesse Moss as Jason Wise
Gina Holden as Carrie Dreyer
Texas Battle as Lewis Romero
Chelan Simmons as Ashley Freund
Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe as Ashlyn Halperin
Amanda Crew as Julie Christensen
Rating = 2/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
Following her premonition that the roller coaster will kill everyone on board, Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) panics – causing some other people to step out of the ride as well. Moments later, the roller coaster does break – killing everyone who remained on the ride. Wendy and Kevin (Ryan Merriman) later discover that Death is stalking all the survivors. They refer to omens in photographs that Wendy took on the day of the accident to determine the survivors’ imminent deaths.
Gore Factor
Just like any Final Destination movie, Final Destination 3 does not shy away from ruthless and disgusting gore. However, I would say that the gore factor in this movie focuses more on blood rather than internal organs. While this movie’s gore is more tolerable than that of others, it does not fail to make the viewers cringe – especially during abrupt deaths. One of the most memorable death scenes would be the vehicular accident that slices a character’s head.
The Grave Review
I had high expectations from this movie as the first two (Final Destination and Final Destination 2) were interesting and exciting. Unfortunately, Final Destination 3 did not meet my expectations at all. For one thing, it had a lot of clichés. During the first part of the movie, Wendy captured a photo of a different ride that originally says, “High Dive.” When she looked at the photo in the camera, one letter was faulty – showing the words “High Die.” Even for a Final Destination movie, that seems to be a ridiculous cliché.
The movie’s computer-generated imagery (CGI) was also quite bothersome. While the movie was made in 2006, it still could have done a lot better in CGI.
It was also difficult to comprehend the personalities of most of the characters. Wendy and her sister Julie appeared to be rivals at first, but they later turned out to be close friends. Progressions like this are fine, but the movie did not show any transition or turning point on how it came about. It also did not make sense why Julie seemed to hate and avoid Kevin when the latter was simply trying to warn her about something. Julie’s character and personality were not properly established and justified.
It was also questionable how the movie spent a lot of time showing how Wendy, Jason, Carrie, and Kevin decide on who sits where during the ride. The discussion could have been done in a 10-second scene.
Some minor scenes in the movie were also unrealistic, such as when a man in the background was not using his jacket’s hood as he was walking in the rain. These details easily show how a movie was poorly written and directed.
It felt that a lot of the death scenes were forced. It’s as if the writers simply brainstormed ideas on how a person could die without properly discussing the flow of events. It felt as if the movie did not have a story anymore.
The movie shows that omens in pictures depict how a person would die. However, the way this narrative was written into the story was too forced. It felt like the writers wanted to add new flavor to the movie that would differ from the first two. Unfortunately, this new “flavor” was unnecessary and unnatural.
Lastly, the scene on the train felt extremely forced. It was as if the writers just wanted to finish writing the story and thought of the train scene on the spot.
Overall, I would say that Final Destination 3 was poorly written and executed.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Final Destination 3 (2006) two graves out of five graves.
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