Jason X - Arrow Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Ever since the sixth sequel, Sean S. Cunningham had tried to get Jason to square off against Freddy Kruger. With the two franchises stuck between two studios and facing diminishing returns, the deal never came together. So for years after that tantalizing final tease with Jason Goes to Hell, Cunningham did what anyone would naturally do, launch Jason into space! Truthfully, the outer space setting is meaningless. They could have dropped Jason on a submarine or dumped him at an Arctic research station and you’d still have the same film. Semi-obnoxious and hardly serious with mostly forgettable characters, the film is a low-rent Aliens complete with a squad of badass marines accompanying our class of misfit students who all get slaughtered one by one. 

If there’s one thing that appears true, the 25th century has a shitty fashion sense. While there are some clever kills, a fun Jason redesign, and a cameo from David Cronenberg, the flick isn’t boldly going where no franchise has gone before. Leprechaun 4: In Space is basically the same movie. Like Jason Goes to Hell I bemusedly enjoy this tenth Jason flick, but I don’t love it. As it sat on a shelf for years before release, it stands as the first film I ever downloaded illegally while I was recovering from a serious lung infection (I did later pay to see it in theaters once it was finally released). 

The final film appearance of Kane Hodder, Jason X has its charms but they’re few. Lexa Doig turns in a capable final girl alongside her Andromeda co-star Lisa Ryder as the sultry badass android Kay-Em 14. Peter Mensah gets a nice spot as the true tough guy marine while Jonathan Potts delivers a suitably schmuck teacher role with one of the best lines of the film. But then Melyssa Ade gets to say what we’re all thinking with the line “This sucks on so many levels!” Since most folks weren't taking the franchise seriously, I guess we can forgive the filmmakers for having their fun with it. 

Here's what Mr. Duarte had to say about the film:
"Once again, producers ignore the events of the previous movie in order to resuscitate Jason from his proverbial death. Nearly ten years since the last entry, the makers of the tenth installment make a similar attempt to revive a beloved horror franchise that honestly should have been left in its grave. Since that's clearly not the case, visual effects artist turned director James Isaac, working from a script by Todd Farmer ('Drive Angry'), launches the unstoppable killer of Crystal Lake into outer space and almost 500 years into the future: perhaps renaming the movie "Jason Voorhees in the 25th Century" would've been more fitting. With a light sense of humor and intentional over-the-top silliness interrupting any possibility of the movie taking itself too serious, 'Jason X' actually manages to be somewhat entertaining, in a corny, high-budgeted direct-to-video sort of way.

The "Die Hard in Space" premise, like some kind of cautionary tale on the unexpected dangers of nanotechnology, liberally borrows from the likes of the first two 'Alien' movies. Farmer and his team provide the film with a good air of claustrophobia although it fails at building suspense, and the marine grunts turn out to be useless fodder with one such soldier even yelling out "Game over!" at a pivotal moment. It's good to know that nearly half a millennium later and capitalist greed leads to some embarrassingly fatal decisions, meanwhile the future is still occupied by potheads and premarital sex. Like the series being given a massive upgrade, Jason is also allowed a hilarious makeover with a new, futuristic mask and body armor that makes him ever more difficult to put down. Several convenient plot devices are just too dumb for their own good, leading to more roll-of-the-eyes than the giggles the filmmakers were probably aiming for. A preposterous finish leaves open the doors for more sequels which thankfully never happened. (Movie Rating: 2.5/5)"

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Orbiting higher into space than Katy Perry and friends, Jason X launches its first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release thanks to Arrow Video. For this review, we were issued a check disc, but once we have a final retail copy in hand we’ll fill in the details. Outside of packaging, everything should be the same. The film is pressed on a BD100 disc and the eventual case art should be reversible and include a booklet. The disc loads to an animated main menu with standard navigation options.

For the time, Jason X had the highest budget of the franchise, but that was also 25 years ago and even then an estimated $11-$14 million didn’t go far with such a VFX-heavy feature as this. Shot on Super 35 and finished ahead of the switch to digital intermediate, this is certainly a step up over the old Blu-rays from Warner Bros. and Scream Factory, but it’s not exactly an earth-shattering presentation. I’m honestly impressed it even looks this good, of the two Jason films coming from Arrow I had my hopes set pretty low.

The film had to make do with a lot of dark shadows and nondescript locations for Jason to hide in. Nearly every set looks like a basement or a warehouse and isn't always very interesting to look at. Well-lit scenes tended to expose the flimsy budget and the CGI effects haven’t aged well as the effects plates lead to some notably soft nondescript details. The Dolby Vision grade offers some more stability for those deep dark black spaces and shadows. Certainly, everything looks better than it ever has, and there’s certainly a better range of fine details, especially for makeup and gore effects. Colors are a bit more robust and skin tones are a bit healthier.  Bitrate is nice and high so you can tell Arrow did their best for this one, but sometimes there’s only so much spit and polish available for certain titles. 

This round for the audio on Jason X we again have the same solid DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 options from the Scream Factory Blu-rays. Of the two, the 5.1 is the obvious clear winner but the 2.0 is no slouch when it counts. One is just better than the other depending on your setup. In this day and age of full Atmos sound systems and high-end multi-channel soundbars, the 5.1 crushes it. From Jason stalking the ship to the rampant gunfire and explosions to the crushing sound of a frozen head smashing into a countertop, the mix delivers. This viewing I did flip over to my setup's DTS Neural X function and found it to be an appealing experience letting the space and atmospherics of some of the locations pick up a little more range. 

Before this launch to 4K, Arrow added in some extra flavor to the bonus features. Along with grabbing up the numerous and extensive archival extras from the Scream Factory box set, this disc includes a brand new audio commentary (three total!) with a nice new interview piece with composer Harry Manfredini. Between the commentaries, interviews, the making-of materials and all of the behind-the-scenes stuff, you’ve got hours of content to dig through after you see Jason crash into Earth Two. 

• NEW Audio Commentary featuring Michael Felsher and Steve Barton
• Audio Commentary featuring Todd Farmer and Peter Bracke
• Audio Commentary featuring Jim Isaac, Todd Farmer, and Noel Cunningham
• Introduction from Kane Hodder
• NEW Scoring the Stars interview with Harry Manfredini (HD 9:53)
• Outta Space: The Making of Jason X (HD 33:10)
• In Space No One Can Hear You Scream - interview with Todd Farmer (HD 23:11)
• Kristi is a Headbanger - interview with Kristi Angus (HD 11:13)
• Jason Rebooted - interview with Sean S. Cunningham o Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X (HD 15:33)
• The Many Lives of Jason Voorhees (HD 29:55)
• By Any Means Necessary: The Making of Jason X (HD 17:35) 
• Cast and Crew Interviews (SD 51:42)
• Behind-the-Scenes Footage (SD 56:48)
• Electronic Press Kit (SD 24:49)
• Trailers
• TV Spots
• Stills Gallery
• Posters and Behind-the-Scenes Gallery

When you’ve already gone down to hell, why not reach for the stars? Jason X might have been filler to keep the character up and killing before we could get the good and proper cage match with Freddy, but it strikes out to entertain the longtime fans and newcomers. Far from the best Jason enterprise, far from the worst, it’s a product of the era, and as such its 4K UHD Debut is a bit of a 50/50 shot. When it looks great, it looks pretty damned fantastic, when it doesn’t, well, it’s at least better than the past Blu-ray discs. Audio is still robust and Arrow sweetens the package with hours of brand new and archival extras. It’s the best release we could have hoped for but it’s for the die-hard Jason devotees - For Fans Only