Freddy vs. Jason Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: Freddy has grown weak and in order to use fear to regain his strength, he enlists the aid of the zombie-like Jason Vorhees to spread mayhem in his name.

Review: First, let me say I do not consider this film canon to either franchise in any way, shape, or form. Yes, we have the Freddy montage at the beginning, but they obviously ignore the events of part six (can't blame them there), and it just doesn't jive with the tone of the other films. Once again we have a mixed bag which would be expected considering this is more of a tribute to fans than anything else. The good: there is a definite respect to both franchises as each icon is given their fair share of time to shine; I did feel Freddy gets a little more attention which is why I decided to review it along with the Nightmare franchise. There are some cool ideas, concepts, and homages which enhances the fun for hardcore fans. The final fight between the two titans of terror is most certainly worth the price of admission and met my expectations for the most part; this film had been in production hell for at least 15 years. Having Jason essentially win the fight also made more sense since Freddy was never meant to be a tough guy and Jason is a giant brute. The bad: the acting is weak and sometimes horrendously bad. The characters are mostly stock and canon fodder which sucks because this would have been a nice chance to give the audience a better lineup. There was a majorly wasted opportunity here to use more cameos or connections to the past installments; wouldn't it have been so awesome to see characters from random movies that had survived to bring a little closure or even just background winks and nods?! But alas, they did not or could not pursue that route. Once again we have Freddy possessing someone! Seriously, enough with this shit! Jason's mind being trapped in dreamland didn't sit right with me since, at this point, we don't know what the hell Jason even is anymore. The approach here made it seem as if he's still the human killer, but the most recent films in that franchise would have Jason almost as a demon. It's also annoying to see Jason resurrected so easily considering how finalized his defeat appeared to be after part nine. All the camp and corny cliches can be forgiven since I'm sure many were written in deliberately even if some things like the stoner character were so annoying. Having the famous soundtracks swap in and out as Freddy and Jason did their thing was a nice little bonus. In the end, I feel this film fell short of the hype considering the build up and the fact that it had been in production for so long. It's not to say that this movie was bad, but it just didn't do enough to really make things interesting. Give it a view, but take it more as a fan appreciation than an actual entry in either franchise.

Notable Moment: At the beginning when Freddy is bringing the audience up to speed on his franchise and we get a surprisingly well done montage highlighting the imaginative franchise.

Final Rating: 5.5/10