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Nlneff
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
USA
84 Posts |
 Posted - 02/16/2009 : 7:08:10 PM
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Posted at Stomptokyo under Eric45
Better then expected…Not bad for its type…surprisingly watchable…a polished turd is still a turd…needs more boobs. This is probably a pretty fair sampling of the opinions of people on Friday the 13th ’09, the latest of Hollywoods “we have no new ideas…” remake cookie cutter. Having seen a pretty slick trailer I was actually cautiously optimistic about this, particularly after having enjoyed Freddie vs Jason far more then I ever would have expected, given that Damian Shannon and Mark Swift were also writing this.
First off, the movie benefits from a much higher budget then most of the previous entries in the series (FvJ excepted). Some viewers felt the extremely low budgets and austere production values were part of the charm of the series, this movie may actually be too slick for them. Personally I’m a bit of snob when it comes to professional editing, and I’ve always had a hard time appreciating extremely low budget films. Having said that, just being a professional production hardly guarantees any real level of quality (Jason X anyone?). I’d have to report that the movie is actually pretty watchable, considering the source.
Billed as a re-imagining of elements of the first 3 movies in the franchise, F13 could be considered a direct sequel to the original, which is recapped in the intro. The movie straddles a pretty fine line in respecting the originals, and it tries to keep elements of the mythology, even when they don’t make much sense. So its pretty vague how Jason somehow managed to survive being drowned, how his Mom believed he was dead (If she did…), how he grew up into childish Rambo etc… But the movie starts moving with enough speed that for the first 20 minutes the movie has a raw energy I’ve never really felt in any previous Jason incarnation. In a nice change, Jason is never played for laughs, and his attacks are swift, vicious, even clever. (And of course rendered in shakey-cam…sigh.)
After the intro though, we enter the mid portion of the movie, and while I can’t say F13 was any worse then any other part of the series, that’s really not saying much. We have the traditional pot smoking kids, traditional nudity, traditional stupidity etc. If you weren’t a fan of these elements before this will not endear the movie to you. Fortunately, while definitely the weakest part of the movie it keeps moving towards the end, and the endgame is, well, better then expected.
And that ultimately is the shortest review I can give F13. It respects the series (And whether you scoff at that or agree with it may largely determine if you like this or not.), delivers some decent shocks, even a character moment or two (I liked a scene when Jason basically throws a tantrum upon discovering someone has been at his place, only to give up like a easily distracted child after he doesn’t find anything.) If being a above average entry in a fairly awful series is the best thing you can say about it, I still left the theater feeling I got my moneys worth.
BTW, Jason if you ever need a job, there is a spot on the US Olympic archery team waiting for you. |
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Friday the 13th 2009
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