Jason X (2001)

So...a quick thought. The first scene in the first Friday the 13th film takes place in 1958. Jason X takes place in the year 2455. This means the timespan of the Ft13th franchise is 497 years. Is there any other film franchise that takes place over that length of time? Get back to me on that.

I had the bar set low for this one....real, real low. But you know what? This is a FUN movie. And how else are we to judge films like this other than a "fun" factor?

The formula of every Friday the 13th film is Act I (the set-up), Act II (Jason slaughters a bunch of characters who only exist to die), Act III (the final girl survives, Jason "dies").

It is Act II that is the stumbling block and as the franchise has aged, it feels to me that Act II has almost become a nuisance to the filmmakers. Something that needs to be dealt with in order to attach Acts I and III....whereas in the earlier films, Act II was the only real concern.

This film opens with one of the best Act I's of the franchise, in no small part due to the appearance of David Cronenberg who totally nails the role of Dr. Wimmer. Much like Netflix's 'Dracula', which refuses to take vampire lore for granted and tries to dig its teeth into that lore - I love the idea of the government simply giving up on trying to catch or execute Jason and, instead, use Jason's unique ability to regenerate to their benefit - which OF COURSE would happen. Sure - Jason is a supernatural entity, but he's a UNIQUE supernatural entity. It's a great opening and a great idea.

What we have in Act II is what we've always had in Act II, but instead of being in summer camp, we're on a spaceship somewhere. Hey - humans are gonna hook-up wherever we are in space and time. The hot blonde intern Adrienne, who I thought would survive awhile, gets it first in one of the series's best deaths....a frozen nitrogen face smashed against a wall into a million pieces. GREAT!

But what follows is as problematic as any of the other later films....and that is....I kind of no longer care about the sequence of deaths that I know must now occur. The opening part of the story is so interesting that this just now seems like a burden and the filmmakers seem to just want to get through it as fast as possible to get to what is one of the better final acts in the franchise.

Uber Jason is great and SHOULD have been left out of trailers and promo materials. Jason meets his match against a group who are - once again - willing to fight back and not just impotently waiting for death. I love Kay-Em 14 with her dominatrix bullet corset. She is a match for Jason and he seems just as surprised as anyone. The ending is exciting and helps the series come full circle.

Jason X, as much as it tries (and sorta) fails to be a good Friday the 13th movie....actually ends up being a pretty good sci-fi/horror movie, in essence, a poor man's Alien, but instead of a crew being trapped with an unfamiliar alien, a crew is instead trapped with a very familiar Jason....and you know what? It works. There is actually some real motivations to the characters in this film....and I appreciate the effort.