Final Destination 3

I'm a sucker for packaging. If you put something totally ordinary into a uniquely designed box, I'll probably buy it. The Final Destination 3 2-Disc Thrill Ride Edition DVD is not one of those things, but it kind of comes close.

I bought this DVD for two reasons: 1) the lenticular 3-D cover (I'm also a sucker for anything lenticular) and 2) the "Choose Your Fate" interactive feature. This feature is supposed to let you decide the fates of the characters in the movie. Supposedly, your decisions would alter the storyline of the movie.

This really intrigued me - I was planning to have all the teenagers survive and have a big clambake at the end of the movie.

Unfortunately, "Choose Your Fate" doesn't really work like that. In most circumstances, the teens in this movie are going to die a grisly death, one way or another. For example, there's a scene where a character is about to be crushed by a large object from above; you have to choose whether he jumps left or right. Either way, he gets squashed - but if you jump right, he gets completely smashed; if you jump left, he only gets halfway squashed. Bogus.

Final Destination 3? Noooooooo!

There are actually some slight differences in the overall storyline that are determined by your choices. I would have never realized this, if not for the movie's Wikipedia entry. The problem with this DVD is that in order to truly appreciate the nuances of the Choose Your Fate feature, you have to watch the movie a few times. It's not the worse movie in the world, but it's not a movie I would want to watch again and again. Heck, I haven't even seen the first two Final Destination movies.

So if you really are looking for a good interactive story, I'd stick to the Choose Your Own Adventure books.