Year of Release: 2006
Director: James Wong
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche, Alexz Johnson, Sam Easton, Jesse Moss, Gina Holden, Texas Battle, Chelan Simmons, Crystal Lowe, Amanda Crew, Maggie Ma, Tony Todd
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5
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Synopsis and Review
"Final Destination 3" marked the comeback of director James Wong to the series he originated (and was also up until now the last installment he participated in). The narrative for this chapter focuses on high school senior Wendy Christensen. She and her boyfriend Jason are out with her close friends Kevin and Carrie, celebrating grad night. Wendy is taking snapshots of everyone, but things take a darker turn when it's time to go on the roller coaster and she has a premonition that the ride is going to experience technical issues and people will die, including herself. Sobbing and visibly distressed, she gets pulled out of the roller coaster, alongside Kevin who was near her to safeguard her safety (since Jason wanted to go in front). A few others get off the ride as Wendy and Kevin do, and while they're trying to calm Wendy the ride goes off and the disaster she had predicted ends up occurring. Riddled with guilt, Wendy avoids everyone, until Kevin lets her know this type of event has happened before. Wendy doesn't want to pay attention to his words, until Ashley and Ashlyn suffer a bizarre accident in a tanning salon and die as a result. Both Wendy and Kevin start going through the list of survivors, trying to save them from freak occurrences, trying to prevent them from dying and themselves from eventually meeting the same fate.
Whereas David R. Ellis gave his first installment of the series a noticeable B-movie vibe, James Wong really played to the more supernatural aspect the series has cultivated throughout its episodes. He was able to create more of an ominous environment in this episode, probably more so than any other one that has followed. While the mechanics of these films are fairly similar, with the two protagonists always trying to warn the survivors of what's coming to them, and witnessing fairly brutal deaths as a result, James Wong in this episode gives these characters some extra backdrop, with Wendy in particular feeling a bit more expanded upon than your typical central heroine (more so than A.J. Cook in the prior installment for instance). The fact that James Wong builds the narrative as a sleuthing type of feature, with two unprepared heroes at its core, also gives the film a certain level of unpredictability, even if the formula does put all these characters through pretty horrifying demise scenarios. The film benefits from a solidly assembled cast, led by the talented Mary Elizabeth Winstead, then starting her career, with good support from Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche, and Amanda Crew. The production team is also solid, with highlights going to the work of cinematographer Robert McLachlan, Shirley Walker's score, and Mark Freeborn's production design. Of the first five installments of the series, it's possibly the most refined one, even if it does fall prey to the formula at its core. Still watchable and entertaining.
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