![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Friday the 13th Countdown, Day 10
May. 12th, 2005 08:59 am(See the previous entries here)
Yes, it's the film that brought Jason back, and the first Jason film since the Scream/postmodern horror trend became the norm. It's also the film that allows Jason to follow in the footsteps of such luminaries as The Leprechaun, the Hellraiser Cenobites and The Critters (although the latter were already from space, really), and goes into outer space. Unlike those sequels, this one doesn't suck ass.
Today's film is Jason X.
Concept: In the near future, Jason wreaks havoc at a military base before being cryogenically frozen. Before you can say, "Hey, that's the same plot Woody Allen used in Sleeper," a futuristic field trip of archeology students recovers him, not realizing that Jason is still very, very capable of killing. Hilarity ensues.
Primary Killer: Good question. It's zombie Jason, if one accepts the chronology of the movies, but at the beginning, we get a scientific explanation for Jason that implies that he has a healing factor (a la Wolverine).
Kills: Zombie/Wolvie Jason kills 23 people directly. He also kills one more by accident, axes two VR people, and causes the accident that blows up an entire space station. CyberJason only kills two VR constructs. Two more people sacrifice themselves to stop Jason, and one other person kills herself because she's an idiot.
Really bad kills: Only one. Geko, one of the soldiers on the space ship, does a major horror-movie no-no, and backs up, right into Jason, who slits her throat. This is a little more frustrating as Geko's death in the final shooting script was better (happening offscreen, letting us wonder). Of course, in the shooting script, Geko is also a man.
Well-done kills: I've mentioned before that the three most recent Jason films all feature massacre scenes. The one here, which opens the film, is the best of the lot, as Jason savagely works his way through a group of soldiers, while still sparing a moment to throw a spear (actually, one of those noose-on-a-sticks people use for dangerous convicts) through a fleeing David Cronenberg (and who hasn't dreamed of doing that?).
Once he's reanimated, Jason's first kill, of Adrienne, who had been performing an autopsy on him, is a classic. After a huge tension build (Jason waking up is a foregone conclusion, after all), Jason grabs her, sticks her head into liquid nitrogen, and then takes her frozen (and already lifeless) head and smashes it into a counter-top, shattering it.
All of the other military murders are fun, with Condor's, knocked off a platform onto a mining drill, probably being the best of them (only surpassed by the non-death of Brodski). That said, I prefer the death of Condor in the screenplay, which made it seem a lot more painful
Waylander gets points for one of the true heroic deaths in a F13 movie, blowing himself up in an attempt to take down Über-Jason.
And, of course, the killing of the two virtual campers by beating them against each other is just hysterical.
But Janessa's death is the one that stands out. This is the accidental death I mentioned above. After Waylander's sacrifice, the remaining students are regrouping, when Jason punches a hole through the hull of the room they're in. Most of the survivors make it out of the room, but Janessa is too far in, and unable to make it out of the resulting vacuum. She's holding on for dear life to the grated floor, when another piece of the floor flies to the hole in the hull and sticks there. As Janessa desperately tries to crawl out, she realizes that she's doomed, and screams, "this sucks on so many levels," right before the vacuum sucks her right through the grate.
And, although it's not a traditional death, the destruction of Zombie/Wolvie Jason by Kay-Em is a thing of beauty, as the android toys with him before systematically destroying him.
Notable celebrities: Kay-Em is played by Lisa Ryder, of Andromeda and Forever Knight fame, and she is wonderfully insane and sexy here. Rowan, the closest thing we get to a Final Girl here, is played by Ryder's fellow Andromeda castmate, Lexa Doig. As already mentioned, David Cronenberg cameod as Dr. Wimmer. After that, the biggest name so far is probably Yani Gellman, who plays Stoney (the kid who gets stabbed in the gut early on), is played by the guy who broke Lizzie's heart in The Lizzie McGuire Movie.
Denouement: After Jason kills the virtual campers, the survivors just barely make it onto a rescue shuttle before their ship blows up. But the explosion sends ÜberJason careening towards them, and just as it seems that they're doomed, Sgt. Brodski, who had been in spacewalking to help set up the rescue, slams into Jason, sending them both into the atmosphere of a planet, where Brodski, at least, dies on entry. As they plummet to the planet's surface, some campers see the "falling star" and decide to check it out. And the Circle of Life continues.
Miscellany: Screenwriter Todd Farmer plays the marine Dallas, who gets his head smashed into a wall.
Overall: It's hard to convey just how much fun this film is unless you see it. Sure, there are lots of great kills, but there are also solid characters, tons of well-done jokes and tributes that never overwhelm (like the aforementioned character named Dallas, a shout-out to the original Alien), some outright moments of horror, and solid acting. The one line that so many folks pre-judged the film on ("It's okay, he only wants his machete") led many idiots to assume that this was going to be a Demolition Man style "Psychopath in a peaceful future" film, when it was nothing of the sort (and the line was actually uttered by a man scared out of his wits and certain that he was going to die). It's a dark society, with technical innovations, but not any utopian crap.
(This is also the first Jason movie to feature the use of ice tongs on a nipple (and not by Jason).)
Really, there's little to dislike here (although the critics found plenty, even though I'm tempted to assume that many of the published reviews were, like a Mitch Albom sports column, written well before the fact and without actually witnessing the event). Lots of stuff for the fans of traditional horror flicks, and an equal amount of stuff aimed at the post-Scream crowd. And only a few brief scenes with the ÜberJason, with most of the focus being on the "real" killer.
Yes, it's the film that brought Jason back, and the first Jason film since the Scream/postmodern horror trend became the norm. It's also the film that allows Jason to follow in the footsteps of such luminaries as The Leprechaun, the Hellraiser Cenobites and The Critters (although the latter were already from space, really), and goes into outer space. Unlike those sequels, this one doesn't suck ass.
Today's film is Jason X.
Concept: In the near future, Jason wreaks havoc at a military base before being cryogenically frozen. Before you can say, "Hey, that's the same plot Woody Allen used in Sleeper," a futuristic field trip of archeology students recovers him, not realizing that Jason is still very, very capable of killing. Hilarity ensues.
Primary Killer: Good question. It's zombie Jason, if one accepts the chronology of the movies, but at the beginning, we get a scientific explanation for Jason that implies that he has a healing factor (a la Wolverine).
Kills: Zombie/Wolvie Jason kills 23 people directly. He also kills one more by accident, axes two VR people, and causes the accident that blows up an entire space station. CyberJason only kills two VR constructs. Two more people sacrifice themselves to stop Jason, and one other person kills herself because she's an idiot.
Really bad kills: Only one. Geko, one of the soldiers on the space ship, does a major horror-movie no-no, and backs up, right into Jason, who slits her throat. This is a little more frustrating as Geko's death in the final shooting script was better (happening offscreen, letting us wonder). Of course, in the shooting script, Geko is also a man.
Well-done kills: I've mentioned before that the three most recent Jason films all feature massacre scenes. The one here, which opens the film, is the best of the lot, as Jason savagely works his way through a group of soldiers, while still sparing a moment to throw a spear (actually, one of those noose-on-a-sticks people use for dangerous convicts) through a fleeing David Cronenberg (and who hasn't dreamed of doing that?).
Once he's reanimated, Jason's first kill, of Adrienne, who had been performing an autopsy on him, is a classic. After a huge tension build (Jason waking up is a foregone conclusion, after all), Jason grabs her, sticks her head into liquid nitrogen, and then takes her frozen (and already lifeless) head and smashes it into a counter-top, shattering it.
All of the other military murders are fun, with Condor's, knocked off a platform onto a mining drill, probably being the best of them (only surpassed by the non-death of Brodski). That said, I prefer the death of Condor in the screenplay, which made it seem a lot more painful
Waylander gets points for one of the true heroic deaths in a F13 movie, blowing himself up in an attempt to take down Über-Jason.
And, of course, the killing of the two virtual campers by beating them against each other is just hysterical.
But Janessa's death is the one that stands out. This is the accidental death I mentioned above. After Waylander's sacrifice, the remaining students are regrouping, when Jason punches a hole through the hull of the room they're in. Most of the survivors make it out of the room, but Janessa is too far in, and unable to make it out of the resulting vacuum. She's holding on for dear life to the grated floor, when another piece of the floor flies to the hole in the hull and sticks there. As Janessa desperately tries to crawl out, she realizes that she's doomed, and screams, "this sucks on so many levels," right before the vacuum sucks her right through the grate.
And, although it's not a traditional death, the destruction of Zombie/Wolvie Jason by Kay-Em is a thing of beauty, as the android toys with him before systematically destroying him.
Notable celebrities: Kay-Em is played by Lisa Ryder, of Andromeda and Forever Knight fame, and she is wonderfully insane and sexy here. Rowan, the closest thing we get to a Final Girl here, is played by Ryder's fellow Andromeda castmate, Lexa Doig. As already mentioned, David Cronenberg cameod as Dr. Wimmer. After that, the biggest name so far is probably Yani Gellman, who plays Stoney (the kid who gets stabbed in the gut early on), is played by the guy who broke Lizzie's heart in The Lizzie McGuire Movie.
Denouement: After Jason kills the virtual campers, the survivors just barely make it onto a rescue shuttle before their ship blows up. But the explosion sends ÜberJason careening towards them, and just as it seems that they're doomed, Sgt. Brodski, who had been in spacewalking to help set up the rescue, slams into Jason, sending them both into the atmosphere of a planet, where Brodski, at least, dies on entry. As they plummet to the planet's surface, some campers see the "falling star" and decide to check it out. And the Circle of Life continues.
Miscellany: Screenwriter Todd Farmer plays the marine Dallas, who gets his head smashed into a wall.
Overall: It's hard to convey just how much fun this film is unless you see it. Sure, there are lots of great kills, but there are also solid characters, tons of well-done jokes and tributes that never overwhelm (like the aforementioned character named Dallas, a shout-out to the original Alien), some outright moments of horror, and solid acting. The one line that so many folks pre-judged the film on ("It's okay, he only wants his machete") led many idiots to assume that this was going to be a Demolition Man style "Psychopath in a peaceful future" film, when it was nothing of the sort (and the line was actually uttered by a man scared out of his wits and certain that he was going to die). It's a dark society, with technical innovations, but not any utopian crap.
(This is also the first Jason movie to feature the use of ice tongs on a nipple (and not by Jason).)
Really, there's little to dislike here (although the critics found plenty, even though I'm tempted to assume that many of the published reviews were, like a Mitch Albom sports column, written well before the fact and without actually witnessing the event). Lots of stuff for the fans of traditional horror flicks, and an equal amount of stuff aimed at the post-Scream crowd. And only a few brief scenes with the ÜberJason, with most of the focus being on the "real" killer.
