Movie Review - 'Friday the 13th'

Friday the 13th Starring Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, and Amanda Righetti Directed by Marcus Nipsel Rated R

For whatever reason, the Friday the 13th reboot took many more years to arrive than it should have given the spate of everything-old-is-new-again updates in the horror movie genre. After all, there are very few movie characters more recognizable than Jason Voorhees, even behind a hockey mask. That raises an interesting question, however. Fans of the original film know the scoop, so can showing teenagers on the run from a machete-wielding, invincible Jason really be a remake of the first Friday the 13th?The truth is, this is kind of a remake of all of the previous films, or maybe calling it a quilt of the previous movies is more accurate. There is no doubt that Jason needed a face lift, though. If you look at the box office history, only one Friday the 13th ever outperformed the first one, a huge success back in 1980. Of course, some would argue that Freddy vs. Jason isn't technically a Friday the 13th movie, and if that's the case, then this series has been going downhill for 30 years. In order of box office performance, the list goes: 1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 7, 9, 8, 10. The high watermark is $40 million and Jason X made under $15 million. But perhaps the box office is misleading, because Jason stands right up there with Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers as an icon of fright. So when Platinum Dunes, the company behind many of these re-imaginings, decided to pump even more life through Jason's veins, it was more about him and less about the rules of the story. The events in the original Friday the 13th are mentioned here, as a ghost story told around a campfire. The chronology has been updated, and that's fine. So in that way, it can't truly be a remake, but more of an alternate storyline, the kind you see in a lot of comic book titles nowadays. The mayhem that occurs in Friday the 13th is no better or worse than most of what you've seen in the past. It's not terribly inventive, though a couple of the kills would make it through to the second bracket of a round robin tournament of that sort of thing. And you might think that's the only way to grade this event, but actually, the motives of our hero (Jared Padelecki) are certainly believable on their own and tie in quite well to the Jason lore. The film opens with a 20-minute mini-sode; the credits come after campers hunting a crop of marijuana outside of Jason's home of Camp Crystal Lake are ambushed and slaughtered. The killer is not wearing his mask yet, just an old pillowcase or something. But the opening establishes the origin of the character, introduces him in exactly the way we expect, and shows us what kind of Jason we've got on our hands. Six weeks later, Padalecki begins searching for his sister, one of the campers who went missing. The device works better than anything else here: We had a chance to reinvent the main character in the franchise in an auspicious way and then we tie another hour's worth of story to him through new characters. It splits up the gore and gives us a break from the usual Friday the 13th fare. Padelecki meets a group of college kids who are shacking up at a gorgeous lake house that belongs to the parents of one of the students. Not all of them survive the carnage, but you probably knew that. Friday the 13th tries to explain how Jason could have survived all those years on his own at an abandoned camp site, which might be something they expand upon if there's a sequel. I'm not saying there will or won't be another chapter, but consider who we're dealing with.
Watch the Friday the 13th trailer

Comments

[emily]

I think it should have gotten at least half another damn dirty ape for the scene where Trent screams like a scared little girl. That was an amazingly funny scene. And Willa Ford looked a lot older than the rest of the cast. Music career not panning out as well as she hoped?

[Get The Big Picture]

I think she is a lot older than the rest of the cast. She was only cast because she'd appear topless. By the time Trent screams, the movie had pretty much lost its appeal. None of the killshots after the opening sequence were the least bit interesting, and the story had really bogged down, too, although the first 30 minutes of the flick was pretty entertaining.

[sammy]

Found the movie online at http://leafpen.com/friday13th Just had to fill out some lame survey to get the movie to play. Not sure how long it will stay up...

[Ambupttuh]

Nice post
Respect!

[Rakesh]

It sounds interesting, the story of Jason, but it seems like his full story has not been completely established as one normal movie Friday The 13th. Though I'll appreciate if anyone would like to explain me the entire story or just the main part of why Jason's mother tries to kill the other girl and finally gets killed avenging a killer courage to her son and he's following it without a sensational career.
Somehow I do not get a clear picture of why is all others who visits the Crystal Lake gets killed by him, provided no-one seems to be as strong as him who grew up on his own in a camping site alone for many years. Additionally Jason looks a lot older like its been around 30 years since his mother died and he had kept her body still in his house just in a half-decomposed manner. Im not complaining about these but anyway I would definitely want to know the correct story. Maybe somebody could provide me with a link?