Jason X

Written by Puño Estupendo

After the 1990s came to a close, the Friday The 13th franchise wanted to try to reinvigorate itself by giving evil an upgrade. After the crapfest of the last several F13 movies, Jason X comes off as quite a bit better even though it's not really all that great. It reminds me of that old Eddie Murphy routine about giving the starving man a cracker, almost anything seems better after watching the previous movies in the series.

The beginning of the movie has Jason in shackles at some sort of military/scientific research facility. A doctor/scientist/research lady is arguing with some Army types over the fact that they're going to move him from his current location and that that's not a very good idea. The researcher (Rowan) is played by Lexa Doig and she's about as believable a researcher as I've never seen, but she's cute enough eye candy, so there you go. Of course things don't go as planned, Jason starts a rampage and Rowan gets trapped in the cryogenic chamber with him, frozen in time, and just waiting to be discovered.

Cut to a gazillion years later and a salvage team (doing their best Alien impression) discovers the base on an Earth that is no longer inhabitable. Taking their prizes aboard their spacecraft, the technology of the future is able to patch up and revive Rowan (who was stabbed by Jason in the past). Turns out the ship is inhabited by a team of students and a team of soldiers, doubling the target count of Jason when he decides to wake up and start doing what he does. It's silly, yes, but it's a premise that has fun with itself nonetheless.

Unlike the tongue-in-cheek of previous installments, Jason X doesn't skimp out on the gore like previous F13s ended up doing. At least when this one makes fun of the sex and violence, it actually gives you sex and violence! In its strive to kick things up a notch, Jason is blown to all kinds of hell through the gratuitous use of firepower and the ship's malfunctioning medical system rebuilds him. Bonding the metal of his machete in with his flesh, his trademark hockey mask is now metal as are parts of his chest and shoulder. Jason in armor is at once ridiculous but also creates all sorts of mayhem for what's left of the cast at this point.

Jason X is a great popcorn-eating, "root for the shamelessness" kind of flick. It's a bit of dated in the fact that it's very obvious this was made when CGI effects were running rampant with all sorts of movies. Once computers became open to those filmmakers that weren't connected with the budgets of Jurassic Park, everyone gratuitously threw in CGI. From the opening credits to the split-bodied gore, the look is saturated by computers. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just a little too in your face at times. I will say that the fun factor kind of nulls that out though, and I enjoyed this one. It's a nice capper to the series as a whole (yes, I know about Freddy vs. Jason, but I have always thought of Jason X as the last of the franchise's incarnation), one that started out phenomenally, sucked bad for the majority of its run, and then found a way to end on a fun note overall.

I'm glad it's over though and the re-imagining has started with the 2009 Friday the 13th (which I loved).