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Friday the 13th (2009) is directed by Marcus Nispel.
The film stars Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Aaron
Yoo, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, and Derek Mears.
The musical score is composed by Steve Jablonsky, and one
of the film’s producers is Michael Bay. The film is a reboot
of the franchise. ***
A group of friends on a camping trip encounter an unwanted
surprise while they search for some planted drugs in the
woods. Jason, a psychotic killer following the murder of
his mother, begins making an effort to kill off the teens,
one by one. Will they find a way to escape this deadly scenario,
or will Jason kill them all before they can get out alive?
***
With all the horror remakes of recent years, it’s clear
Hollywood is running out of good ideas for horror movies.
And the final products are typically stale and inferior
to their original source material. This reboot of Friday
the 13th has a lot of good ideas, including an attempt to
flesh out and develop the character of Jason, and combining
several good ideas from various films in the franchise.
The problem? The end result is far less than the sum of
its parts. ***
What could have been a fine remake of the classic,
quintessential B-horror movie comes off as a modern-day,
overproduced mess. The actors play stereotypical, uninteresting
horror characters wh o exist for no purpose other than to
meet the wrong end of Jason’s weapon – and when they do,
you’re not likely to care. In many ways, it feels like the
crew tried to go too overboard with this project, and to
cram too many elements of the old series into a single movie.
Attempting to flesh out Jason doesn’t make things any more
interesting, either – it was an interesting idea, but this
still doesn’t make the character sympathetic or compelling.
One of the great strengths of the original Friday the 13th
is that it was what it was, and made no apologies for it
– a low-budget, B-grade slasher flick that managed to entertain.
It lacked depth, but didn’t need it. The crew’s attempt
to add depth to the series in this reboot actually tends
to make the characters and the whole film experience more
shallow than earlier entries. Long story short, Friday the
13 in its remade, rebooted form is going to appeal only
to horror die-hards. And even then, there is better horror
fare out there. ***
On a side note, the Blu-Ray features the theatrical
and extended, unrated cut of the film in one package. The
DVD sets DO NOT make use of seamless branching, and one
must decide which version of the film they want to buy.
Yet another reason Blu-Ray is the superior format. ---
Image and Sound: The film looks like you’d expect it
to. As a gritty thriller, the image has that look you’d
expect, with light film grain – but even so the film still
feels overproduced. Detail is strong throughout, though
the disc doesn’t quite reach the best of Blu-Rays for modern
movies. A TrueHD audio track is included as well, and while
it is relatively tame, dialogue-heavy fare, there are those
terrifying moments that will get your attention and give
your speakers a momentary workout. All things considered,
for what it is, this is a good transfer. I don’t think Jason
is going to be hunting down the people at New Line.
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| Special
Features: |
Quite a few features, many of which are exclusive to
the Blu-Ray. As far as features shared with the DVD goes,
there is a featurette on the reinvention of the Jason character
and deleted scenes. A digital copy is included as well.
As far as Blu-Ray exclusives go, in addition to BD-Live
content, the disc features a trivia track, and two additional
featurettes. While none of these pieces of bonus material
goes too in-depth, they are still worth viewing for fans.
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