Movie Review: Friday the 13th (2009)

The movie stars Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle and Derek Mears.

I spent a good chunk of my Friday volunteering my time for our local ice rink and, as a result, was pretty worn out by Friday evening. So, when my wife wanted to crash on the couch and watch this movie, I didn't put up much of a fight.

This isn't the first time we have seen this remake of the classic horror movie franchise and, to be honest, the first time we watched the film, I really wasn't as interested in it as I probably should have been. After re-watching it and getting a new opportunity to compare this version of the story to the original series, I found I still struggled to list it as one of my favorite movies.

My biggest problem with this movie (which I would describe as being more of a remake of the second film than the 1980 original) is pretty much the same problem I had with the original films. Jason Voorhees looks the part but is actually kind of a disappointment as far as horror movie villains go.

Simply put, there's just too much sneaking around. Voorhees is a villain that should be able to slice his way through any victim without breaking a sweat but, instead, chooses to pop out from behind a door or out of a shadow and catch them by surprise or kill them from a distance with a bow and arrow. The first couple of times aren't so bad but, after a while, it does make you wonder if he is the stereotypical bully who would just run away if someone actually stood up to him. At minimum, Michael Myers and Leatherface would likely mop the floor with him.

The movie was also kind of predictable. The majority of the characters in the film were obviously just there to give Jason a higher body count (while being as unlikable as possible in the process) and, while I was admittedly a little surprised by one of the deaths, that surprise was mostly only about when it happened rather than being surprised the character didn't survive. As a result of the predictability, I did find it was a little hard not to get bored with the movie.

On the plus side, I don't think this remake was any worse than the original films. However, because the writers chose not to upgrade Jason into more of a bad ass, it really wasn't an improvement over them either.

My Grade: C