Review of Jason X (2001) by Thequietgamer — 24 Apr 2015

Once you get over the absurdity of the premise you can see the potential for a good film here. A slasher film set in space sounds awesome. While we technically already got that with 1979's "Alien" this movie had the advantage of having a legendary horror villain to use that could have set it to greatness. However the results aren't as satisfying.

In it's best moments it can seem like a low-budget version of Alien. In it's worst the intentionally self-aware sense of humor cranks up the absurdity dial and pulls you out of the experience. Not that it was that great of a movie anyway. As always with this series the scares are non-existent and the appeal is just on watching characters get killed in brutally amusing ways while maybe getting to see some boobs in the process. It's mindless, but entertaining.

You think that the jokes would actually end up adding some value to the experience, but they actually just end up bringing it down. Self-aware doesn't always equal funny. Sometimes the jokes can just be cringe worthy. However the only times things get bad is during an intentionally goofy showdown between Jason and a one-liner spouting android. That whole scene is just awful.

I think the film would actually have benefited if it had taken the serious tone of the earlier Friday the 13th films. The idea would still be out there, but at least we would have avoided the bad jokes. As it stand though there is some entertainment to be had here. It can be quite fun and it's pretty cool to see Jason cutting down space marines. Your enjoyment depends on whether or not you can get behind the premise, as well as how big a fan you are of this series. As far as I'm concerned it's far from Jason's worst killing spree.

I give "Jason X" a 6.5/10.