Will You Succumb to Death Or Will You Cheat It? Yes/No
Much to my surprise, New Line Cinema made a 3rd film in the Final Destination saga.
As a senior at MacIntire High, Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is enjoying senior night at the local amusement park. She seems preoccupied with taking photos for the yearbook. She is fairly certain that she doesn't want to ride the roller-coaster called The Devil's Speed, but her boyfriend, despite her reluctance, Wendy gets into the ride seats and goes into a trance where she foresees her own death. This traumatizes her into a frenzy and causes 6 or 7 to get off the ride before the fatal accident occurs. From this point forward, Wendy, has a looming feeling that some kind of force is directing her path towards some unknown fate. Her dead boyfriend's best friend Kevin (Ryan Merriman) tries to tell her that he learned that something similar happened before about another student years ago having a premonition that a plane filled with his classmates was died, so many got off the plane before it crashed and saved their lives. After that incident, the survivors all died under mysterious circumstances and in the same order of the setting.
I'm very surprised about this film since it was James Wong who directed the first film of the trilogy, and now he came back to do this one and perhaps even a fourth film due out soon. Wong must have had this idea running around in his mind for several years and finally decided to give it another spin. Wong now gives us two different ways to view the film. One way is as the normal theatrical version and the other way is an interactive choice version where you can change the course of the film and somehow change the course of how things progress throughout the movie. I'm not sure at this moment how complicated it gets, but I do know that on my initial choice, I saved the original boyfriend from death and several others, and therefore, somehow stopped the chain of events that lead to anyone else dying. To me that was surprising, since I thought it might just be a very simple screen prompt (yes/no), but as I continued, it got more interesting.
Of course, we all wonder sometimes how we could finally succumb to the hands of death, as well as when. This film is one of those films that entice you into watching because of our own curious nature. We all want to know everything, including how other people die, even tragically. If you have following the Final Destination Trilogy, then you will know the formula for all three films are very similar in nature; introduce the audience to someone who foresees some looming tragic accident before it happens and let the character cause people to escape death, thus somehow cheating death, but only for a small time. Why, for a small time? Because supposedly death is still coming after you and in the same order as before, just perhaps somewhat postponed until he can get around to setting things straight. This predestination concept is embedded in many different philosophies & religions, so the idea of cheating fate is really nothing new.
Wendy and Kevin both played their rolls pretty well, however I thought that there were times when you just would think to yourself, "How can these two be smiling at each other right after they witness some kind of tragic death of one of their friends?"
I'll give this film a 4/5 because, I've watched it twice and the seemed to enjoy the interaction part better the 2nd time.
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