The main problem with making a crossover is that mainly its just massive non-sexual (mostly) fanservice, and people tend to forget that they're still making a movie and should try to make it good. The most shining example of this failing that I can imagine is Alien vs. Predator Requiem. I liked Alien vs. Predator, but the sequel basically rode on using the PredAlien, and threw togethor some mindless carnage and shot like five minutes of footage that was supposed to resemble a plot. Plus they crossed both the child killing taboo, and the pregnant woman killing taboo. Basically I guess what I'm saying is, Alien vs. Predator Requiem, YOU SUCK! But that's another story altogethor.
However, there is one fight that people had been waiting for a while. I of course speak of, Freddy vs. Jason.
I'm a Freddy man myself, mainly because I just tend to find his concept more scary than Jason. Jason is your essential slasher villain, he'll chase you up the stairs and pick off your friends, and basically make you want to get as far away as possible so that you can rest. Freddy gets you WHEN your resting, and thus dosn't need to chase you up the stairs.
After his defeat in Freddy's Dead (which I haven't seen) Freddy is in hell and cannot enter the Dream World because his home town Springwood has gone to great lengths to make everyone forget about him. Without any memory of him, they can't fear him, and without fear he is powerless. So, he finds someone who will make them remember, a fellow supernatural killer named Jason Voorhees. Proving tha Jason is just a big ol' mummas boy, he diguises himself as Pamela Voorhees and aks him to go to Elm Street and start spreading some carnage so that they think Freddy's back, and he does.
Lori Campbell is the newest resident of Krueger's old house, meaning that Jason's first stop is there (seriously, if they're willing to ignore their childrens pleas for help to forget Freddy, why don't they knock down the damn house?). After picks off some of her acquaintences and starts haunting her and her friends dreams, she realises she's in danger and needs help. However, things are worse than they seem. Once Freddy's back, he's not too happy to find out that Jason's still going. But he just crosses the line when he takes Freddy's first kill away from him.
The first thing I want to talk about in this film is that it starts with a prologue. Whenever a film starts with an epic prologue, chances are things are going to go downhill from there. The best aversions of this would be Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Fortunatley it's not over the top with CGI and is pretty well narrated by Freddy.
Second of all, it DOSN'T suck! Oh my god that is awesome! Okay, I have actually seen the film some years ago, but only rewatched it recently. The film isn't anything special, but it is pretty good, all things considered.
One problem with the film is that it feels more like an Elm Street film more than a Friday film. But then I thought to myself, how could it feel any more like a Friday film? Freddy pretty much has his own mythos, there's plans to keep him down, there;s drugs to repress him, he has numerous enemies (most of them dead) he has a fairly interesting origin, has his abilities, his boiler room, and the house. Jason has his weapons, his abilities, his mother, Camp Crystal Lake, that eerie chi chi chi chi sound and well, the series is just too inconsistant to inclue stuff like his cyborg upgrades in Jason X. I guess the only way to make him seem less like a Guest Star would be to have a guy whose familiar with him as a main character. I guess the film sort of balances this would pretty well by having him pummel Freddy pretty brutally a few times.
Now with the story away from the killers, I am genuinley shocked to find that I remember the characters and actually felt bad when they died. I know, I know, shocking right? They're a little flat in a few respects, but you'll remember who they are (even if you don't catch their name the first time around). I paticulerly like Gibb, Lori's alchoholic friend (Yes, Gibb i the name of a girl) even if it's just cps she looks cool in that cap she's never seen without. The mal characters are much more boring, though I've got to give the dorky one points for trying to attack Jason to defend the others. Good job.
One other thing I noticed is that Freddy dosn't really get to go all out with his usual set of horrific deaths (though we get reminded of them in the prologue). This guy can walk you around the roon like a puppet with your veins, and in this film he pretty much sticks with slashing. He does get to do some creepy stuff like turning into a giant Bong smoking maggot and forcing himself down some dudes throat, but most of the deaths are done by blade. The gruesomeness is sort of lampshaded by Jason, however, when he takes his first kill in Springwood. He stabs the guy a bunch of times, and then folds him into his own bed. I can imagine the dream behind that being kind of messed up.
Also, there is the minor gripe of the fighting. All the fights are pretty cool, but there aren't very many of them. I guess that's not a big problem because they're both being pretty psycho throughout their scenes, so both sets of fans will get what they want. I especially like the party scene where Jason gets teased by these two drunk guys for coming in a costume. He twists one guys head around, then gets set on fire, then kills the other dude with his machete at long range. Then it's just funny to see peple charge at him and gt slaughtered in mass.
However, the final fight brings Freddy into the real world, which takes away his reality warping powers, and reduces him to incredible strength and immunity. Needless to say, he gets owned a fair bit. There's a particulerly odd moment where he falls off some construction workand gets his leg caught in a giant whacky pendulam thing. On a whole, however, I'd say the fights are pretty good, and sadly probably better than the 'Epic Climax' of Iron Man 2.
Also, there are a few Crowning Moments of Awesome and Funny. Lori gets a CMoA for actually going into her dream to get Freddy, and also for doing no less than BLOWING HIM AND JASON UP! She just punched out Cthulhu. Jason gets a few by get electrocuted with a few thousnad volts and using it to his advantage, mimmicing Freddy's style of gruesome murder (as stated above) and actually seeming like a Hero in comparison to Freddy, who talks and therefore is able to be much more of a dick even if e gets like under ten kills throughout the film.
I can't really say there's a lot of CMoA's for Freddy aside from remaining a pun spewing jokester and genuinley seeming threatening for the first time in a while, but he gets a CMoF for using Jason's body to play Pinball. Lori's friend Kia gets one when she needs to give Jason Mouth-to-Mouth. And I suppose seeing the Freddy Grub smoke his bong was pretty funny. I mighy also mention the scene where Freddy tries to take his first kill and fails got a laugh out of me. Especially with the Big Lipped Alligator Moment that is the goat. That and he wakes up and gets killed by Jason.
I'd like to mention the scene where Gibb dies as being funny, but that's only because the glowstick guy gets killed and because of Freddy's reaction. The rape part of the moment makes it less funny though, or more considering that the dudes dead now.
On a whole, I'd say that unless your looking to make a film that is going to be reveered like the source material, aim for the qaulity of Freddy vs. Jason if you're making a crossover film. Speaking of which, I sure hope the Avenger dosn't suck, but I'll make a bigger point of that later on.
And finally, no I haven't read Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash or it's sequel, but I might in the future.
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