Long considered dead and buried, New Line Cinema's Friday the 13th franchise came to life once again in mid-1999 with an innovative Todd Farmer screenplay and a commercial friendliness to teen horror not seen in fifteen years. Kane Hodder was onboard for his fourth appearance as Jason Voorhees. The online horror community picked up the e-buzz, and suddenly internet message boards were squawking about the futility of a "Jason in space" premise. Even as it was filmed in Canada during the summer of 2000, nay-sayers were priming their nay-arsenals with wised-assed invective designed to tank Jason X. Fickle re-scheduling from New Line, which ultimately resulted in a 26 April 2002 release date, didn't exactly affirm studio faith in their product. And after all the back-and-forthing, the BBS-speculation and the smarmy Ain't It Cool News posturing, how is the actual film? In two words: enormously satisfying. Jason's romp aboard the Grendel spaceship in the year 2455 does share some structural overlap with Aliens, but the emulation largely ends with the mere premise. Main character Rowan (Lexa Doig), who is cryogenically frozen along with Jason during a "present day" tactical fiasco during the film's prologue, is neither a Ripley nor a Believe-It-Or-Not. She is a voice of 21st Century reasoning during a mortal crisis upon a vessel populated by technologically-advanced but intellectually-static people who still utter such figuratively dated lines as "I just saved your ass!" and "Hey, Slappy, I got something for ya!" The reanimated Rowan's implorations to jettison the frozen Jason from the Grendel falls on hearing ears, personified by the takes-a-licking-but-keeps-on-ticking military grunt Sgt. Brodski (Peter Mensah), although the money-hungry (and subsequently unhearing) ears belong to Professor Lowe (Jonathan Potts), who is in charge of the archeology students onboard who found the specimens. Lowe is perhaps the film's main flaw, which means the picture as a whole is still in good shape; he is hopelessly caricaturized, but he still generates functionability as a corrupted authority figure, and some of the film's funniest lines are uttered by him. Hodder, who's played Jason four times now, finally gets his first decent unmasking since his debut in 1988's Part VII. Prior to his self-imposed ressurrection, a researcher in the Grendel medical bay briefly removes his mask; it looks like a decent attempt at a years-older version of Tom Savini's design for 1984's Part IV. If only the camera didn't twitch away two seconds into the shot. Blink and you'll miss it. An integral component of any high-tension genre film is an effective ensemble cast of protagonists who possess chemistry. Jason X fires on all cylinders in this area. Doig's Rowan is allied with wise-cracking computer expert Tsunaron (Chuck Campbell), plucky flirt Janessa (Melyssa Ade), go-ballistic android Kay-Em 14 (Lisa Ryder), sensibly altruistic Waylander (Derwin Jordan), and the ever-surviving Brodski. In their scramble to escape doom on the collapsing Grendel spacecraft--or at the hands of the marauding Jason--each exhibits selfless risks to save their buddies when they're in the glue. Many of the sideline characters manage to endear themselves to the viewer, including cowboy pilot Lou (Boyd Banks), spaced-out classmate Azrael (Dov Tiefenbach) and no-nonsense military grunt Dallas (screenwriter Farmer, in a small role he wrote for himself). The "Jason in space" angle may sound uninspired to those who've weathered Leprechaun In Space and the like, and the story comparisons to the Alien films might raise a red flag or two. The truth is, none of Jason X seems forced or ripped-off. The brisk pacing, deft storytelling and the smartly-written dialogue work in favor of a project that more than a few people would like to see crash and burn. And to those fans who'd have rather seen another summer camp soiree, consider this: camp has only so many pitfalls to add to the formula. And they've pretty much all been done by now. A futuristic spaceship has a good deal more to offer--unstable pressurization, door malfunctions, virtual reality illusions, a nano-technology lab gone awry when it....okay, I'll stop there. In the long run, it's amazing that the Friday the 13th series, begun in 1980 with Paramount's original film, is still going today. Diminishing box-office receipts during the latter 1980's and constant critical mauling (including some from the latter-day online genre cognescenti) can't kill Jason--or the juggernaut that is his movie career. We wouldn't have it any other way, though, would we? Succinctly put, Jason X delivers. And to those who would ask if the ending leaves open the possibility of an eleventh trek down Voorhees Way: One never knows, does one? Principle Credits: Starring Lexa Doig, Lisa Ryder, Kane Hodder, Chuck Campbell, Melyssa Ade, Derwin Jordan, Dov Tiefenbach, Jonathan Potts, and Peter Mensah Directed by Jim Isaac Produced by Noel Cunningham Written by Todd Farmer Music by Harry Manfredini Visual Effects by Toybox << Back