jason x

I grew up reading science fiction, thinking my beloved genre was all about the possibilities of the infinite: advanced civilizations inhabiting distant star systems; men with brains so large and hearts so beneficent they could barely be contained within their bodies; women with beauty so magnificent and intellect so stunning they would leave bystanders breathless.

And they I started watching movies and eventually realized it's all about death, destruction ... and more death.

This week's release of The Final Destination, which is obsessed with staging elaborate 'kill scenes,' got me thinking about memorable scenes of demise in science fiction films. Sci-fi is notably short of serial killers, but offers a wider range of death scenes, beyond simple murder and mayhem. Here's my list of the top 10 sci-fi deaths. (Of necessity, this list is nothing but spoilers, so you have been warned.)

1. The Emperor (Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi)

Everyone knows where they were when they saw the Emperor get what was coming to him. Me, I was in the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, opening night, second showing, near 5:00 a.m., shouting (and ultimately cheering and applauding) along with the rest of the sold-out auditorium as Luke looked between his father and the Emperor, in pain, agonizing, understanding that the man he had hated was being tortured by the man who should be hated. And then he made the right call. Goosebumps still raise up in the glory of the memory.

In honor of Jason's big DVD day, I thought I'd pull out my old review of the lunatic's only science fiction massacre. Call me nuts, but I think it's a stupidly fun film.

How much you enjoy the more "disposable" forms of entertainment (horror comic books, video games, "Jason" movies) generally depends on how high your expectations are. These pieces of "brain candy" are usually considered somewhat 'lowbrow' affairs, so the key here is not to base your opinions on anything higher than a visceral level. Is Jason X a cleverly-plotted, masterfully-directed and emotionally challenging film? Absolutely not. Does it deliver the gory goods for the loyal fans with a minimum of inadvertant stupidity? Surprisingly, yes. (That's the key in a movie like this: if the 'stupidity' is intentional, much can be forgiven.)

"Jason in space." OK, it's a stupid idea. As someone who's spent a lot of his childhood with uber-slasher Jason Voorhees, I was a bit skeptical about the idea of my favorite stalker being transplanted into an outer-space setting. But with the leaps in logic, sense, and simple good taste we've come to expect from this unending horror series, I suppose the deep-space setting* is not that big a leap. We are, after all, talking about a villain who's been killed a dozen times, hitched a boat-ride to New York City, and even got turned into some slimy alien creature. So if you're going to argue the "logic" of Jason in space, you may be better off skipping Jason X entirely.