Sunday, March 30, 2014

Wishmaster 3 : Beyond the Gates of Hell (2001)

College student Diana is a research assistant for her professor and while waiting for him in the museum lab, opens a package which contains an artifact.  Examining it, Diana finds a secret compartment containing a gem. Unfortunately for Diana she has just released the Djinn, who will give the person who freed him three wishes.

For some reason the Djinn doesn't appear immediately, and the professor ramps up the awkward by getting all pissy after Diana rebuffs his advances and leaves. Shortly after this, the Djinn randomly shows up asking for her and when the Professor can't help, the Djinn threatens him and then grants his wish, which backfires terribly.  Unfortunately for the viewer, the death isn't clever and makes no sense.  Where's the clever twist? Where's the bad pun? It's just here's your great wish, oh now you're dead, let me steal your face, now everyone will think I'm you and I can do evil.

Diana is a pretty good student so she figures out quickly that the Djinn is not her friend and his wishes aren't something to use. Legend has it that when the third wish is granted, the gates of hell will open up and unleash evil on Earth.  Since Diana won't succumb to his threats, the Djinn starts killing anyone close to her. This leads Diana to wish for help from arch angel Michael who proves to be incredibly inept and is a waste of a wish as he's apparently the least competent angel since all he tends to do is get beaten up.

This is a movie all right, and that's about all you can say. People do stupid things and so does the Djinn.  Since Diana never leaves campus, why can't he ever locate her?  And why doesn't anyone ever wish the djinn would drop dead, or cease to exist?  Or why doesn't anyone ask for a wish for something good and add a caveat that the wish can't be twisted into something bad?  Or why not just wish the Djinn into a rock that he can never escape from and no one will ever find, and then shoot it into outer space?

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