[Trivial Psychic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Kain

Friday the 13th 3 - This movie sucks. None of the characters have any sort of development and their acting is down right atrocious. It's like they just offered people they saw walking down the street a role in this movie because they didn't have the time or money to actually hire actors. The back story of Chris makes no sense because Jason does not have hair even though he had it just a day or two ago from the incident of 2 (even though he seems to have lost it again in the matter of 12 hours). Granted, it was nice that they wanted to do some type of back story, but the lack of any acting skills on the main character makes it hard to believe. The worst part is the staff seemed to prefer putting in as many 3D gimmicks as possible rather than write a good movie because the plot is just awful. Not only that, but the three bikers and the married couple at the beginning served no purpose other than for someone to say, "Yes, we now have a higher body count than before." Sure, Jason is a lot better in this movie than the last one, but still, for someone who had a machete sliced into his shoulder a few hours ago he seemed to have healed quite quickly. And now he gets an axe to the face that will not be present later. Overall, I give this movie a 4/10 stars.

Ouch. This review hurts the because outside of parts 4 and 6, this film is the best of the bunch and also features my favorite Jason out of the series, Richard Brooker.

There has never been a definitive timeline as to how much time transpires between each movie of the Friday the 13th series. The only time we get that sense of time is during the Tommy Jarvis saga (parts 4, 5, and 6) in which we see Tommy grow from a young boy of about ten or 12 years old into a young man between 18 to 21 years old. After Ginny defeats Jason in part 2, we have no honest idea how much time passes. It certainly doesn't take place moments after part 2, as Chris's first encounter with Jason takes place years before the events of the third movie transpire. We do know that part 4 takes place just hours after part 3, but as far as the amount of time that passes in the first three movies between them, who knows? After Tommy returns Jason to his final resting place in part 6, we have no honest idea how much time passes until part 7 takes place (as we see Tina kill her father accidentally as a young girl, and is much older when the film begins.) The same can also be said about the time between parts 7 and 8.

Also, Jason took an axe to the head in the end of part 3, and that battle wound appeared on nearly every version of Jason to appear on film after that. In the beginning of part four, there is a large crack in the mask where the ax struck, and a gaping, bleeding wound underneath is, which can be seen when Jason's mask is knocked from his head in the finale. In part 6, when Tommy digs up Jason, he returns his mask to the grave which also sports the same crack from parts 3 and 4. The head wound is also there. Same when Tina destroys Jason's mask in part 7. The wound on his forehead and his eye socket (from part 4) are both still easily noticeable.

Now how Jason's face changed so much in the short period of time between parts 3 and 4 is an interesting question, but then again, each movie has tried to make Jason more and more hideous as they have went on, so this is simply a case of a director and makeup artists putting their own stamp on the series.

Part 3 might not have aged well, but at the time it was made, it was somewhat revolutionary in terms of horror films. Sure, some of the sight gags were cheesy, but let's be honest, movies made in 3D during the 80's were primarily gimmick ridden anyways (Jaws 3D anyone?) and modern movies are not all that different, often overdoing it with CGI or purposely adding in scenes just so the movie can justify being released in 3D.

Friday 3D was also one of the first modern horror movies that had a multi-ethnic cast, was shot with new 3D technology that had never been used before (the Louma Crane) and helped launch the career of Stan Winston, who was uncredited but worked on the original make up and design of Jason in the film. It can also be noted that the movie had two different endings filmed for it, one in which Chris is brutally murdered by Jason at the end, with the other of course being the return of the undead Pamela Voorhees.

Brooker's performance as Jason is what does it for me. He's a mad man, freakishly athletic for his large frame. Where Kane Hodder was an almost cartoonish character, Brooker was far more terrifying in the manner he stalks his prey. You see Jason show signs of frustration, cunning, excitement, agitation, anger and just plain insanity as he will just about anything to get at those kids. He even shows expressions of boredom (which can be seen by the manner he lazily shuffles off the dock after killing Vera) which was more than Hodder ever brought to the role with his exaggerated breathing and super hero style posturing. Brooker's Jason also feels pain, which gives you a glimmer of hope that someone might actually survive an encounter with him.

My favorite part is when he spots Chris on the lake from the cabin at the end. The way Brooker comes barreling out of that house after her was just downright eerie for me watching as kid. Also, the scene where Rick gets his head crushed? One of my favorite 3D gags of all time, and is pretty effective the first time you see it. Most either groan in cheesy disgust, or laugh at its' cheesy hilarity.

Sorry this rant got so long, and is all over the place. I just wanted to clear up some of the timeline stuffs, while at the same time, explain while I love Friday 3D so much. It's a fair opinion, and you're entitled to it. I'm sorry you didn't like it more. =)