Teen-horror, as a genre, is one that society tacitly understands is not to be taken seriously. The dialogue is largely failed by both writers and actors, the plots are ridiculous and the gore is excessive. It is in this light that the "Final Destination" series, most of which were directed by James Wong, is really the A-Grade franchise of a C-Grade genre; the premise is promising and the direction is impressive, but at the end of the day the films have no choice but to submit to a lousy formula and pander to a supposedly brain dead demographic. Sadly, this means that all three films are effectively moderated down to a generous "B".
In the latest installment, the trendily abbreviated FD3, near-graduate Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and her near-graduating class take a year-book photo trip to the local carnival (effectively portrayed by Wong and cinematographer Robert McLachlan as the Festivities of Satan), where she has a horrible, graphic and suspenseful premonition that the Roller Coaster of Attraction will malfunction and derail. Petrified, she evacuates the ride and manages to take 6 others with her, including her best friend's boyfriend Kevin (Ryan Merriman). When her premonition indeed comes to pass, Wendy is initially wrenched with guilt that she was not able to save her boyfriend and best friend, until she realizes she has a whole lot more to feel guilty about: as was the case with the doomed Flight 180 from "Final Destination" (2000), Death is being a stubborn bastard and coming after the survivors of the wreckage to claim the 7 fish that got away.
In keeping with tradition, and following a formula obvious from the moment the original film was released, FD3 is, more or less, exactly the same as its predecessors, even if the plot is becoming a little worse for wear. In all fairness, anything less would have been an outrage to hardcore fans of the series, who really just enjoy watching cynical teenagers get their grisly, grisly comeuppance. And as long as we know what we're in for, we shouldn't be too horribly disappointed (at least until the very last 15 minutes, which entail an embarrassingly bad ending). This is mainly because James Wong is actually a very talented director, one who has managed to, momentarily at least, breathe the long-lost art of suspense into the genre. For instance, the opening premonition scene is a rather splendidly devised crescendo of paranoia, whose tension is practically palpable. The climax of the introduction is also surprisingly exciting.
However, it soon becomes clear that the film makers had not thought any further than this one scene, and so decided it would be safest to simply repeat these techniques over and over and over again. In between scenes of Wendy and Kevin investigating their predicament to give the illusion of plot development, two airhead 18 year old girls (Chelan Simmons and Crystal Lowe), an aggressive black football player, (Texas Battle) a Sherman-like sex-obsessed geek (Sam Easton) and, my personal favourite, a cynical Emo couple (Alexz Johnson and Kris Lemche) meet their maker in imaginative ways, many involving disfiguration of heads. By the half-way mark, the spooky scenes of infinitesimal happenings and chain reactions of inanimate objects resulting in roastings and decapitations has pretty much lost whatever it was that made it interesting and it wouldn't surprise me if most of the audience walked out thinking they liked this idea a lot better six years and two sequels ago.
Be that as it may, any one who honestly expected something in the vein of "Misery" or "Don't Look Now" going into this picture deserves the nasty shock they got. You can't order fast food and complain that it's not healthy. And every one else will hopefully be able to see that this was as good as it could possibly have been and reserve harsh judgment. If not, then perhaps a brief viewing of "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" will help put things in perspective.
In the latest installment, the trendily abbreviated FD3, near-graduate Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and her near-graduating class take a year-book photo trip to the local carnival (effectively portrayed by Wong and cinematographer Robert McLachlan as the Festivities of Satan), where she has a horrible, graphic and suspenseful premonition that the Roller Coaster of Attraction will malfunction and derail. Petrified, she evacuates the ride and manages to take 6 others with her, including her best friend's boyfriend Kevin (Ryan Merriman). When her premonition indeed comes to pass, Wendy is initially wrenched with guilt that she was not able to save her boyfriend and best friend, until she realizes she has a whole lot more to feel guilty about: as was the case with the doomed Flight 180 from "Final Destination" (2000), Death is being a stubborn bastard and coming after the survivors of the wreckage to claim the 7 fish that got away.
In keeping with tradition, and following a formula obvious from the moment the original film was released, FD3 is, more or less, exactly the same as its predecessors, even if the plot is becoming a little worse for wear. In all fairness, anything less would have been an outrage to hardcore fans of the series, who really just enjoy watching cynical teenagers get their grisly, grisly comeuppance. And as long as we know what we're in for, we shouldn't be too horribly disappointed (at least until the very last 15 minutes, which entail an embarrassingly bad ending). This is mainly because James Wong is actually a very talented director, one who has managed to, momentarily at least, breathe the long-lost art of suspense into the genre. For instance, the opening premonition scene is a rather splendidly devised crescendo of paranoia, whose tension is practically palpable. The climax of the introduction is also surprisingly exciting.
However, it soon becomes clear that the film makers had not thought any further than this one scene, and so decided it would be safest to simply repeat these techniques over and over and over again. In between scenes of Wendy and Kevin investigating their predicament to give the illusion of plot development, two airhead 18 year old girls (Chelan Simmons and Crystal Lowe), an aggressive black football player, (Texas Battle) a Sherman-like sex-obsessed geek (Sam Easton) and, my personal favourite, a cynical Emo couple (Alexz Johnson and Kris Lemche) meet their maker in imaginative ways, many involving disfiguration of heads. By the half-way mark, the spooky scenes of infinitesimal happenings and chain reactions of inanimate objects resulting in roastings and decapitations has pretty much lost whatever it was that made it interesting and it wouldn't surprise me if most of the audience walked out thinking they liked this idea a lot better six years and two sequels ago.
Be that as it may, any one who honestly expected something in the vein of "Misery" or "Don't Look Now" going into this picture deserves the nasty shock they got. You can't order fast food and complain that it's not healthy. And every one else will hopefully be able to see that this was as good as it could possibly have been and reserve harsh judgment. If not, then perhaps a brief viewing of "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" will help put things in perspective.