Final Destination 3--A Review

By Justin Fencsak

I first heard of the movie Final Destination when I saw a trailer for the film before Pitch Black more than six years ago at Clifton Commons. A few months later, I saw it in the smaller Allwood with my late nana, and we thought it was a good movie. I got the movie on DVD for Christmas that year for use on my Oritron DVD player (along with Mission Impossible II). Then, less than three years later, part deux came out, and I missed out on seeing it in the theatres, which was good since I waited for the dvd, and I bought it. It was good, but not as original and unpredictable as the first one. Three years later, the third installment came out, and I waited out on that film too, and this weekend (Aug. 12, 2006), I rented it from Blockbuster thinking it might be better. Turns out that I enjoyed this one.

This time the focus is on a group of high schoolers who are getting ready to graduate from high school and head to college, only to face their worst fears...death. From a thrill ride at an amusement park gone wild to a bad day at the tanning salon and so forth, this film has thrills, chills, some humor, and lots of pretty girls and goofy boys.

After watching this film, this film is much better than number two because the guy who made the first one, James Wong, is back. He has made some creative and grotesque death scenes, some of which I can't tell you. The music by Shirley Walker retains the series' haunting theme, and the script brings references to 9/11, not to mention the events in the first and second installments of the New Line franchise.

In a time when fear is everywhere, it's nice to know to watch a movie where the bad teens die and the good teens survive. That film is Final Destination 3, easily the best in the series. The special features on this 2-disc edition are really cool, especially the innovative "Choose Your Fate" feature, which allows you to pick alternate scenes for the characters as well as the film. Some of the choices I made were fine, others didn't do well for me. None of the original characters from the first and second  films are in this one, even though the creepy black guy who says "you can't cheat death" has a cool cameo!

Coming soon, a review of Poseidon, the first summer movie of the year to get an early DVD release due to its poor box office.