So we're up to Jason in Space, huh?Before I get the hell going on this particular "Friday" review, a little fascinating (okay, maybe not) info about yours truly: I've reviewed the "Friday the 13th" flicks TWICE before for various online places/publications, and on both of those occasions I said "screw it" after "Jason Takes Manhattan" rolled around. The reasons were many. I thought the series would have ended just fine after "Jason Takes Manhattan." I hated the fact that Sean Cunningham came along after many years of disassociating himself with the series that I grew up loving and, in essence, trashing it. And I HATED the self-referential/jokey tone that the New Line entries had. In essence, I really, really detested this period in "Friday the 13th" lore.
Eventually, I DID write a review of "Jason Goes to Hell" on an online forum, but unless you're one of the loyal posters at the official wrestlecrap forums, you'd never seen me review "JGTH" before...but this one escaped me. Until now. Yes, folks, this is the first time that your humble host has ever written a review of "Jason X," so now that I've officially raised the expectations pretty high for this momentous occasion, prepare to be disappointed.
Despite this flick's status as the FIRST "Friday the 13th" film we got in nearly a ten-year period, for some reason, it's always been just kind of there for me. This has got to be some kind of major accomplishment - the movie is about friggin' JASON VOORHEES TROMPING AROUND IN A SPACE STATION, for Christ's sakes. It's not supposed to be dull and monotonous, but nonetheless, that's what we get with this movie. The characters, with one notable exception, are entirely forgettable, and the writing is fairly moronic. Okay, maybe not fairly - it's fully, 100% moronic. Still, for all intents and purposes, I didn't hate "Jason X," and with my third viewing of the movie coming just yesterday in anticipation of this review (I hope you're happy, loyal cavalcade of three fans), it's got a few things going for it that I'll get to in a bit.
The lone Horror Nerd interesting fact about the production of this movie - believe it or not, Sean Cunningham decided to produce this film because "Freddy vs. Jason" had been in development hell for so long that he thought another "Friday" film would be fun to do. Color me impressed, Mr. "Get this guy the hell out of the hockey mask."
Okay, the story. I don't know, do you really need a story? Isn't "Jason in Space" really all the story you need? You want more? Okay. It's the year 2008, and Jason Voorhees (once again played by Kane Hodder, and once again we get to witness the hulking stuntman/character actor absolutely nail the silent role) has been captured by the U.S. government. It seems that scientists want to study his strange regenerative powers. Of course, horrific accidents occur wherein our hockey-masked hero (it feels really good to type those two words after the review of "JGTH," it really does) causes all sorts of havoc, and eventually wounds up cryogenically frozen with one of researchers.
Flash forward to 2455. Humanity has taken to the stars, or something. Actually, it is explained - the real Earth has become polluted to the point that human beings can't survive there anymore. Happy, plot completists? Anyway, a group of students find the research facility, unthaw Jason, and bring him aboard their ship. Of this group of characters, the only one even worth mentioning is Kay-Em 14, a shapely robot chick the researchers have with them as an assistant. She's the only one you'll remember by name at the conclusion of the film; the rest of the cast is murder fodder.
At that level, though, this film is infinitely better than "Jason Goes to Hell." Two main improvements that the creators of the series made from the previous installment:
(1) Much more screen time for Kane Hodder. Forgive me for beating the dead horse, but the man IS Jason, and his presence and malice - sorely missed for 13 years - is back in full-form this go 'round.
(2) Awesome kills. Two in particular really stand out in this flick - the "frozen face smash" and the "back breaker" deaths. The former is easily the most memorable kill since the immortal "sleeping bag of death" kill from "Friday the 13th Part VII." So huzzah to writer Todd Farmer for that.
Oh, and then there's the "Virtual Camp Crystal Lake" sequence, damn near worth the price of admission alone. While some critics point to the scene as too tongue-in-cheek, I chuckle every time I see it. The material that we're parodying here isn't Shakespeare, after all; it's a silly slasher series. A lot of fans (myself included) got a kick out of the familiarity of the scene, and it was quite the interesting little sidebar.
Unfortunately, there really isn't a whole lot else to say about "Jason X." It's Jason in Space. It's campy, somewhat fun, a little ridiculous, but overall a pretty forgettable little film with plenty of completely disposable characters whose names you can't even remember 24 hours after watching it. It's definitely not the worst movie in the series, but nowhere near almost ALL of the Paramount films, and it's easy to see how this flew in and out of theaters as quickly as it did. In short, it's just as mediocre as this review.
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