Subject: Review: JASON X (2001)

From: JoBlo <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 02:39:01 -0000

JASON X
RATING: 4/10
http://www.joblo.com/jasonx.htm
 
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PLOT:
Jason Voorhees is still alive but now he's frozen in space in the year 2455.
Despite the changes around him, the man famous for sporting his hockey mask
wherever he goes, hasn't changed much and still has "killing" and "teens" on his
mind. The killing of teens ensues.
 
CRITIQUE:
Since I've already seen a couple of cool, popcorn horror thrillers this year in
RESIDENT EVIL and the superior BLADE 2, I had certain expectations from this
movie as well, hoping for it to deliver the similar fun punches as the former
films. Unfortunately, this flick isn't in the same league as the others with
little action, almost no suspense or believable tension, one-dimensional
characters up the wazoo, an embarrassingly lame score and sets that can only be
described as "sci-fi generic". What sucks even more is that the film does
actually have a pretty cool premise (for a "slasher" flick, that is) and an
ultra-cool opening credit sequence. In the 10th installment of the FRIDAY THE
13th series, it seems as though Jason, the unstoppable killing machine that he
is, wakes up in the year 2455 and still wants to kick that ass. It's cool that
they tried to change the environment around the uber-murderer, so that it would
be a little different from the previous installments, but unfortunately they
forgot to spice the film up with the required energy, interesting characters,
thrills or a reason to give a shit about anyone on screen. Starting with a
decent opening scene featuring a cameo by director David Cronenberg, the movie
quickly downshifts into space and presents us with many faceless teens parading
around in as less amount of clothing as possible, and expects us to give half a
rat's ass about them, even though they all come off like complete morons (it
doesn't help that the actors are all pretty stale as well).
 
And the girlie-girls, you might ask? Well, there was this one hot babe, you see,
and...well, yeah, she's one of the first to go (great move, Mr. Director...why
not kill the only guy with balls on the ship next, so that we really don't want
to have anything to do with the movie!) I will admit that the way in which the
hot babe is killed is definitely one of the cooler kills that I've seen in quite
some time though. And I only wish that the film had continued that trend, but it
doesn't, and most of the rest of the kills are pretty generic, with little gore
and CGI-obvious, save for a couple of other doozies. Jason, of course, still
kicks a lot of ass but that can only take you so far (unless you're a major fan
of the dude, and if you are, you shouldn't care about reviews in the first
place), but even he's not given the rightful support with an extremely weak
score (was that an organ playing in the background?) and almost no rock music!!
(now this, I can't forgive) Sure, the film slaps a couple of tits our way near
the end of it all, during a fantasy sequence that is actually pretty fun, but
most of the chicks in the movie aren't appealing, the action (aka killings) are
okay but don't really blow you away and the one action sequence that was fun,
featured a robotic chick and Jason going head-to-head, but God knows how she
suddenly achieved her Matrix-esque like powers (which reminds me, I don't mind
stretching the believability factor in a movie that features a man who can never
die as the lead, but when said nutball is killing everyone in sight, don't have
two of the characters suddenly discover that they love one another and start
making out-it's not the right time...there's a madman on the loose, dammit!!)
 
I will say that the one character of Sergeant Brodski, played with commitment by
actor Peter Mensah was a lot of fun to watch ("That oughta do it"), and actually
made me think of how the film might've been improved if the characters had all
been hard-nosed adults, instead of weak-assed, bad acting teens. Overall, the
film might entertain some who enjoy watching Jason chop through people (I
haven't followed the series, so if that makes a difference to you, I saw this
film "as is", with no baggage from previous installments), but for any regular
moviegoers wishing to find a thrilling, action-packed movie with well-developed
characters and mucho originality, you're barking up the wrong Jason movie. Dead
on arrival?
 
Where's JoBlo coming from?
The Bride of Chucky (7/10) - Event Horizon (6/10) - Jeepers Creepers (6/10) -
Halloween: H20 (7/10) - I Know What You Did Last Summer (7/10) - Resident Evil
(7/10) - Scream 2 (7/10) - Supernova (5/10) - Urban Legend (4/10) - Urban
Legends (3/10) - Valentine (3/10)
 
Review Date: April 23, 2002
Director: James Isaac
Writer: Todd Farmer 
Producer: Noel Cunningham 
Actors: Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees
Lisa Ryder as Kay-M 14
Peter Mensah as Sergeant Brodski
Genre: Horror
Year of Release: 2002
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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 309669
X-RT-TitleID: 1113860
X-RT-SourceID: 573
X-RT-AuthorID: 1021
X-RT-RatingText: 4/10