Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman

6 out of 10 stars: How postmodern is it to be derivative of yourself? This question, along with some gruesome kill scenes and a heightened sense of camp, is what Final Destination 3 has to offer, but the third and finally final (?) chapter might just be the most entertaining of them all. I say "might" because, well, how much do you remember about FD1 and FD2? Right, there was Flight 180 with Devon Sawa, then a multi-car pile-up with Ali Larter, then, um ... some blood ...

Director James Wong and his co-writer Glen Morgan (both vets from the first Destination who were absent for the sequel) return with a premise that sounds about as scary as walking over a subway grate: freaked out by a feeling of an impending disaster, high school senior Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) causes a scene aboard a roller coaster, and she and some of her peers get off the ride. Moments later, those who stayed aboard are carted away to their deaths. So now Death, who has been cheated once again by an underage hottie, looks to exact its revenge on those who made it off the ride -- in the order they were set to die. Roller coasters are scary, sure, but more than jumbo jets and slick highways? Please. The roller coaster sequence is chilling in close-up -- the ride is all dripping cables, shoddy wheels, and crumbling architecture -- but when the camera pulls back to show the cars derailing and catalog-cute students sent banging, clanging to the ground (or being eviscerated, or impaled), the scene is ruined by the effect of ultra-fakey CGI. It's as if more time and money were spent on the slick opening credits than the portrayal of the third rift in death's design. But it's to Wong's and Morgan's credit how they handle the aftermath of an underwhelming and poorly executed main event.

The rest of the movie comes off like a time challenge for filmmakers: exactly how do you go about killing a handful of kids in 90 minutes -- in ways your audience has yet to see? If you're Wong and Morgan, you create second and third acts that rely as much on gore as they do on comedy, as we're treated to Wendy's attempt to outwit death and save the lives of those who got off the ride with her. Armed with a stack of photos she believes depict the ways in which each person will meet their doom, she goes about trying to alter the fate of others. There to assist her is Kevin (Ryan Merriman), a boy she doesn't exactly like, but since he dated her best friend, Carrie (Gina Holden), who bit it alongside Jason (Jesse Moss), f.k.a. Wendy's boyfriend, she figures they have some sort of connection. Well, they are linked in that they were sitting together in the last car on the ride, meaning they are set to be the last two to die. And as Wendy takes notice of Kevin's manly charm and emerging heroic nature, she knows they stand a better chance of surviving if they stick together. While they don't make it in time to the tanning salon where two of their classmates are UV'ed to death, they're present when trucks, weight benches, nail guns, and forklifts become powered by the forces of Death and kill the spazz, the jock, and the Goths who survived the roller coaster.

The set-ups are increasingly gruesome, and the filmmakers are experienced enough to know their audience likes to watch vain, obnoxious, or skeptical teens meet cruel fates. (Though I'd say ixnay on the September 11th imagery, boys.) Final Destination 3 is so eager to entertain, it's stupid to pick apart the movie's design. I've wondered the same thing since the first picture: what would happen if the main characters ignored Death's call and simply decided to go on with their lives? Maybe those two recent high school grads with fake breasts could get a perfect tan; maybe that jock would have gone on to play college ball; the boy Goth might have come out to the girl Goth before they enrolled at RISD. Like its predecessors, this movie rules because it eludes to the idea that Death could be merely a suggestive breeze through Wendy Christensen's hair, but it's she who has the power to bring about unfortunate events.