Movie Defense Force: Freddy vs. Jason

[Remus]

This is how old horror franchises are kept current. Not by rebooting them and transposing them to the time that they started - where it was not only possible, but entirely likely to live in areas that are utter technological deadzones, but by taking all the prior lore and mythology and inflicting it onto the current generation of hot 18-20somethings. I find movies like this to be so much better than the string of remakes we've had. It sticks nicely to the original characters and keeps them relevant in an age where everyone's more aware of their environment than ever, communication lines are far more easily accessible, and people are often more likely to fight than flee. Even the drunk partiers' first reaction was to light Jason up, not that it stopped him. Instead of a crispy critter, they got a mass-murdering machete-wielding maniac, on fire! It's still a fun horror romp without being so tongue in cheek that it stops being scary.

 

[Vausch]

Jim, you wanna know why I was disappointed? Ash didn't show up.

The cliffhanger ending to this movie made people want to see Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, talks of the script were made, the script WAS made, but the movie was just never brought to light. Instead we got the comic, which admittedly was a lot of fun (the sequel not as much, didn't enjoy the artwork and Ash didn't do anything).

So yeah, I admit that's a bit of an odd reason but it felt like the Jason Goes to Hell set up Freddy Vs. Jason while Freddy Vs. Jason set up F v. J. v. Ash, yet it left us disappointed. It's somewhat of a retroactive hate for me.

 

[Zenn3k]

The only thing I remember out of this movie was that the girl I was with while seeing it became so bored by the film she randomly offered me oral during it, which I accepted...and yeah, I don't remember anything about the movie.

 

[Alcamonic]

"So... you're afraid of something after all...

 

[Tumedus]

I agree pretty much but I can't go so far as to say its better than any of the solo efforts. Nightmare 1 and 3 are simply better movies, imo. And the first Friday movie, while not necessarily "good" is notable for being one of the 2 main movies (the other being Halloween) that catapulted the slasher genre into mainstream popularity.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I haven't seen any of the Nightmare on Elm Street films, mostly because they're not on Netflix (at least in Canada) and my parents wouldn't let me watch them as a kid. I have seen the Friday the 13th films though and yeah they were terrible, entertaining, but terrible. I did like Freddy Vs. Jason. As Jim said, it did seem like a step up from the source material of either franchise, and the means in which the two entities were brought into conflict was actually quite clever as opposed to being contrived as is usually the case with big crossover events.

 

[Darth_Payn]

I think the reason this movie got so much hate can be boiled down to one word: Sequelitis. Or to expand that into an URL:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Sequelitis
The longer both series got, the more ridiculous their overall stories became, and it culminated here in many fans' minds.
It would seem most of Jim's choices will be horror movies, since they're the ones with sequels that get cranked out the most. Can we get MovieBob involved in this? Pretty please?

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I love the Freddy and Jason characters. An i think FvJ was excellent, the story worked, they stayed true to both source materials and best of all, made Freddy a scary psycho again instead of a clown. I was a first dissapointed that Kane Hodder wasnt Jason. But when you look at the film, it works with the new guy. Jason is tall, slow and afraid of water. Freddy is shorter, faster and afraid of fire. It also works when they fight with Freddy ducking and dodging hits and Jason being unable to.....although that guy is a tank and can a lot of damage. An just watching Robert Englund play Freddy is a joy to see, i like a killer that takes so much glee and enjoyment in what he is doing. Unlike the Elm St remake, god that sucked.

Best of all, if you read any of the other scripts for this movie, they were terrible. Pity we never got a Freddy v Jason v Ash. I read the script and it was great. I think they made it a comic book in the end.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Hmm... Well, I think I should watch this sometime...
And now is as good a time as any.

EDIT: Alright, I watched it. Was a pretty interesting comedy.
I was expecting horror though.
Oh well.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Freddy vs Jason was probably one of the funniest movies I think I've ever seen.

 

[Magmarock]

When I first saw Freddy VS Jason for the first time I really liked it, I guess that's because I didn't have too high expectations. My only expectation was to be entertained.

 

[SoMuchSpace]

Urgh, that god awful intro song....

Otherwise agreed.FvJ isn't that bad at all.

 

[Xanadu84]

Outside of Blair Witch 2, which I never watched, every single Movie Defense Force has been movies that I enjoyed, and spend a while not even realizing that they are disliked by many. Freddy Versus Jason is definitely a stupid slasher flick, but it is very good at being a slasher flick, and I was genuinely impressed at how they made the disparate mythos fit together in clever ways.

Also, how someone can go from Jason X to this and say that THIS is bad is beyond me.

 

[minimacker]

It's debatable if Versus had better special effects than the original Nightmare on Elm Street. I mean, do you remember the face-in-the-walls-and-ceiling scenes? That shit was dope.

 

[Pennywise12528]

I was waiting for this one, since it being in the intro genuinely gave me a surprise. I had heard grumblings about Friday the 13th fans feeling that Jason was misused in the film, but I mainly came from the other camp and had an absolute blast.

I also agree for the most part with the review, but I'm not entirely sold on the concept of FvJ being the best visually out of either series. The best off of Jason's plate, maybe, but some of the NoES films really took the fact that there's pretty much no limit to stages you could plop Freddy in and ran with it. Ol' Burnface has slashed his way through an unearthly cathedral, a minotaur-worthy labyrinth made out of boiler-room equipment, M.C. Escher's stairways [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_%28M._C._Escher%29], a literal planet-sized junkyard, the moment of his own conception in the prison of a hundred maniacs, and the magic schoolbus.

The actual scripts could vary from okay to godawful, but those sets man. Those sets.

 

[babinro]

I was under the impression this movie was almost universally enjoyed.

Surprising choice for a defense force episode from my perspective.
Next you'll tell me we need to defend Rocky 4 or Commando.

As for the video I pretty much agree with everything.
The original Nightmare movie would be the closest contender for best flick out of the bunch but that's really just preference.

 

[Metalrocks]

yeah, the idea is good and was amusing to watch. has some good kills in it and compared to the previous titles, it is better made. maybe i will watch it again when i see it in my rental store.

btw, i have the feeling he will do the fifth element one day.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

I was 14, didn't have any preconceived ideas about how this could or "should" play out. I was just a kid who was a pretty big Jason fan (I don't know why...and that bugs me) and I really honestly couldn't even make sense of the match up but none the less I went to the theatre an excited kid and ended up really really enjoying it.

And I still do to this day as I have matured and grown a pretty fierce hatred for horror movies since Cabin in the Woods pretty much became the ultimate ?holy wood horror movie? to me both changing the game while revealing and poking fun at the rules of the old one (modern Scream?) <<<wow run on sentence.

 

[shogunblade]

I have seen All of the Nightmare on Elm Street films, as well as own them (Box Set, with the 3-D glasses, and I own the VHS Unrated Cut of Elm Street 5), but I have seen none of the Friday the 13th movies (I didn't want boobs, I wanted story, even at a young age).

I still kind of enjoy Freddy V. Jason in a strange sort of way, but is it better then the Seven Elm Street Movies? Not hardly.

The First Elm Street started the franchise, and it's still undeniably creepy in spots.
Elm Street 2 is the black sheep, but it's the one I defend because of the psychological aspects. It was trying to not be Wes Craven's movie, and it succeeds because it isn't trying to mimic Elm Street 1, it is its own film. I would love to go more into it, because I have legitimate defense for why Elm Street 2 is actually the better film out of the entire series. It's more creepy, unnerving, dark and uncomfortable. Jim, if you should decide to do a Movie Defense Force for Elm Street 2, I'd love to hear what you think about it.
Elm Street 3 is actually not the 2nd best, it's just more technologically advanced. Special Effects do not a good movie make. It is fun, but no where near as enjoyable as many people make it out to be.
Elm Street 4 is fine, but monotonous. By that point, it was Freddy Jumping the shark.
Elm Street 5 is the worst of the entire series. A pregnant woman being involved with the story would make an entertaining idea, but it isn't used to near its full effect, and with the only highlights of the film being the deaths (which aren't that good, unrated or not), it's by and large, the worst film.
Freddy's Dead is silly, with cameos abound and a Looney Tunes like Freddy for the majority of the film, but as bad as it is, it's still fun to watch.
New Nightmare is probably the 2nd best, after Elm Street 2 and 3. It used whatever Wes Craven could salvage out of the monster he made in 1984 with Elm Street 1 and condensed it into an uncomfortable and brilliant meta film.

FVJ isn't a bad movie, but I do agree, it felt rather anemic, at least, from what I can say of Freddy's Films.

Still, not a bad film.

 

[Darks63]

I fully agree with you Jim I never saw why people hated this film so much i ultimately delivered on its promise of the said fight and it was a very good battle overall.

I cant wait for Your Hellraiser 3 review thats another one of my favs from the series and i was unaware that people hated them especially with all the bad sequels post the giant space cube hellraiser movie.

Hmmm, I don't know...

I will agree with the fact that both franchises are pretty much stupid as hell - though sometimes entertaining - but I still think Nightmare on Elm Street 3 is a better film. Story? Meh. There were creative deaths and good special effects to go with them. The smoking girl getting her face smashed into the TV and the muscled woman slowly turning into a cockroach were way more memorable to me than anything that happened in Freddy Vs. Jason.

The cockroach women is from Nightmare 4 not 3 yeah i know they all kinda blend together.

Whelp, there goes my credibility. Though the third one did have the guy being led to his death like a puppet with strings made from his own flesh, right? That was still pretty memorable.

Yeah that's the one the 3rd one takes place mostly at a asylum for teenagers and the 4th one takes placer mostly at a high school and has the highlarious scene of the martial arts guy fighting a invisible Freddy.