Final Destination 3 (2006) - Winstead bores in Wong's dumb turkey

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Something goes haywire on a rollercoaster full of young people on this excitement-building poster for James Wong's Final Destination 3

A deadly rollercoaster accident is presaged by our protagonist, who gets off the ride in the last moment along with a group of morons, as the accident actually takes place, whereupon the saved individuals begin dying one by one ...

Final Destination 3 is written by Glen Morgan (Willard (2003)) and co-writer/co-producer/director James Wong (The One (2001)), who also directed the franchise's first film, Final Destination (2000)).
Boring Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Sky High (2005)) is our lead, and she plays across from Ryan Merriman (In the Rough (2017, TV-series)), who plays a boring guy, and the rest of the cast is rounded out by college-aged twits, one stupider than the next.
The opening disaster is a lot of fun and handsomely staged, but apart from that the film, including its elaborately staged death scenes, is pretty lame. Nothing from the previous two films is reinvented, and nothing is added to the established rule book of Final Destination either.
Final Destination 3 is a really poor one, SPOILER and it has an enormous train-centered finale, which seems like it is simply added to boost the running time.

Related posts:

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Final Destination franchise: Final Destination 2 (2003) - Ellis's sequel is a ridiculous but impressive and entertaining array of wicked mayhem
Final Destination (2000) - Wong's entertaining death chiller kicks off a lucrative fatalistic teen franchise (also directed by James Wong)

Watch a clip from the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 117.7 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.70 times its cost)
[Final Destination 3 premiered 9 February (Thailand) and runs 93 minutes. Shooting took place in Vancouver, British Columbia from March - June 2005 with reshoots in November 2005. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Pink Panther, to a 19.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more week in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 54 mil. $ (45.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 15.8 mil. $ (13.4 %) and Germany with 4.9 mil. $ (4.2 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Wong returned with Dragonball: Evolution (2009). Winstead returned in Bobby (2006). The franchise continued with The Final Destination (2009). Final Destination 3 is rotten at 43 % with a 5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Final Destination 3?

Final Destination 2 (2003) - Ellis's sequel is a ridiculous but impressive and entertaining array of wicked mayhem

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A batch of fresh young faces are back for abrupt tragedies on this dark poster for David R. Ellis' Final Destination 2

Due to a premonition, a girl on her way to spring break vacation is able to save several lives in a freakish freeway accident, as 21 wood logs fall off a semi. But Death has his ways of catching up...

The opening scene to the first Final Destination sequel maybe isn't as scary as the plane accident that opens the original film from 2000, but it is an absurdly well-done and spectacular scene nonetheless. An epic car crash.
The plot is a rackety construction, and it gets dopier from the fact that Final Destination 2 takes itself embarrassingly serious. It is written by J. Mackye Gruber (Kyle XY (2006-08)) and Eric Bress (The Butterfly Effect (2004)), with Jeffrey Reddick (Final Destination (2000)) contributing story elements, and directed by David R. Ellis (Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996)), who is primarily a second unit director and stunt specialist.
Final Destination 2 is really all about the deaths, which are bigger, wilder and bloodier than those from the first film. They make the film a regular mix of action and gore, and Ellis has a firm handle on staging these scenes, which, for a genre fan, are good fun.

Related post:

Final Destination franchise: Final Destination (2000) - Wong's entertaining death chiller kicks off lucrative fatalistic teen franchise

Perhaps Final Destination 2 is just a 'repulsive spectacle' as Claudia Puig of USA Today opined, but it succeeds in instilling a strikingly physical effect in some audiences, as can be seen in this audience reaction video for the film

Cost: 26 mil. $
Box office: 90.4 mil. $
= Box office success
[Final Destination 2 premiered 30 January (USA) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place from February - May 2002 in British Columbia, Canada, including in Vancouver. For the opening pileup scene, no CGI cars were added in post, just logs, smoke, debris and blood. The film opened #2, just slightly behind fellow new release The Recruit, to a 16 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 46.9 mil. $ (51.9 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 9.3 mil. $ (10.3 %) and France with 4.7 mil. $ (5.2 %). The film is the lowest-grossing in the franchise, which continued with Final Destination 3 (2006), The Final Destination (2009) and Final Destination 5 (2011). Ellis returned with Cellular (2004). Final Destination 2 is rotten at 48 % with a 5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Final Destination 2?

Final Destination (2000) - Wong's entertaining death chiller kicks off a lucrative fatalistic teen franchise

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We are reminded of the skulls lying behind the young, attractive stars' faces on this effective poster for James Wong's Final Destination

A high school class boards a plane headed for Paris, which explodes shortly after take-off. One of the students wakes up on the plane, which is readying for take-off. The experience, an extremely vivid dream or premonition, makes him leave it. - Only to actually see the plane explode shortly after with most of his classmates onboard. - This is only the beginning ...

These are the opening scenes of Final Destination. And you can't argue with this opening, which is hauntingly morbid and evocative, besides well-made technically.
Regrettably the young actors in Final Destination, of which many are lifted from TV, are generally sub-par, and it is also curious that the script often charge them to be stupid to the point of retardation.
Final Destination is, despite - and sometimes maybe because of - its moments of involuntary comedy and frightful self-importance, an entertaining teen horror. It is written by Glen Morgan (The X-Files (1993-18)), Jeffrey Reddick (Tamara (2005)) and feature-debuting co-writer-director James Wong (Dragonball: Evolution (2009)).

Watch a trailer for the latest in the franchise, Final Destination 5 (2011), here

Cost: 23 mil. $
Box office: 112.8 mil. $
= Big hit
[Final Destination premiered 16 March (USA) and runs 98 minutes. Reddick's original idea was first envisioned as an X-Files episode, but was instead written as a feature. Filming took place in British Columbia, Canada, including in Vancouver, in Toronto, Long Island and San Francisco from May - August 1999. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Erin Brockovich and holdover hit Mission to Mars, to a 10 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #3 for another week before leaving the top 10, grossing solid 53.3 mil. $ (47.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 15.5 mil. $ (13.7 %) and Germany with 6.9 mil. $ (6.1 %). The success spawned a franchise of 4 more films, (Final Destination 2 (2003), Final Destination 3 (2006), The Final Destination (2009) and Final Destination 5 (2011)) comic books and novels. Wong returned with The One (2001). Final Destination is rotten at 34 % with a 4.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Final Destination?