Final Destination 3

I am a big fan of the original Final Destination film, and liked its sequel, which took a more tongue in cheek attitude towards the whole setup. The idea of death stalking those who have foiled its plans is a great one and one that is once again assumed in this second sequel. Rather than a plane crash or highway pile up, the accident in question this time involves a rollercoaster and is an well conceived sequence that is bound to put people off fairground rides for a while. However the scene is somewhat less impressive than those in the other films and no time is taken afterwards for the people who escaped to fully realise the situation. Its almost as if the film is in such a hurry to get to the deaths and the meat of the action that setting up the horror of the incident or the impact it has on the survivors is forgotten. Afterwards the films follows a fairly straighforward pattern following the main two characters as they track down the people that survived before they get killed off one by one. Strangely there is little connection to any of the first two films here aside from some internet research and so those following the mythology of the series will be annoyed at the lack of any tenuous connection or continuity. This is entertainment pure and simple and as such succeeds. The deaths are generally more elaborate and gory this time around, similarly the characters are barely developed outside of the main two which means you don't especially care who lives or dies. This is far from a cheap cash in sequel and has a lot to reccomend, however it also fails to bring anything new to the franchise. There is no new twist, nothing different hapens than the first two films and the ending is pretty disappointing in my view. This is a film made for a purpose and an audience. It delivers gory deaths, some decent action and cardboard characters. It's not bad by any means and I enjoyed it, but it's almost a shame to see what started as a more serious and intriguing horror film descend to the equivilent level of a slasher film. Innovative deaths and some great set pieces save the rather muddles rest of the film. Never straying from overly familiar ground this is a decent enough sequel but does nothing to advance the franchise or build on the past installments.