Jennifer's Body - Review

Wow! I've been reviewing a lot of horror films lately. To be honest, it's bit a little overwhelming. Sure, I'm a fan of the genre, but I typically like to add some variety to my movie viewing and blog entries. I was going to take a small break from the scary flicks after reviewing the Scream movies, but after seeing Jennifer's Body a few days ago, I thought of a few things to say about it. So consider this my last horror review for a while until I feel refreshed.

Jennifer's Body is a 2009 high school horror/comedy directed by Karyn Kusama and written by Diablo Cody. It stars Megan Fox as the sexy and self-obsessed Jennifer and Amanda Seyfried as her nerdy BFF Needy. After Jennifer and Needy go to a concert at a local bar, Jennifer makes friends with the band, only to find out that the band is a group of Satan worshipers. In order to be successful, the said band makes a deal with the Devil and offers Jennifer to him as a sacrifice. Only problem, since Jennifer wasn't a virgin, the sacrifice backfires. Instead of dying, she returns as a vengeful demon-possessed man-eater. Now, with Jennifer and her new-found demonic powers wrecking havoc on the town, Needy is forced to find a way to put an end to her rampage.

Jennifer's Body is one of those movies that was hard to judge simply based on its premise. It's main attraction (at least by the marketing standards) was Megan Fox. After hitting it big as the hot chick from Transformers, Fox saw a sudden rise to popularity. The commercials and trailers made Jennifer's Body look like a sexy horror flick with Fox's beauty as the main attraction. However, those who watch this with the hopes of seeing Megan Fox naked or some shameless T & A will probably leave disappointed. Oh sure, Megan Fox is hot, and it's not like the movie doesn't use that to its advantage, but there is definitely more going on. The movie actually has underlying themes of female empowerment, as Jennifer uses her sexuality to entice and prey on her misogynistic classmates on the lookout for tail. So what was marketed as a skin-fest is actually closer to a feminist statement. It all sounds good in theory, but unfortunately Jennifer's Body suffers thanks to sub-par execution.

Unfortunately, this was a movie that put a lot of faith in its actors, and there in lies the first mistake. Megan Fox, quite simply, is an awful actress. Her lack of talent was first apparent from her less-than-stellar performances in the Transformers movies, and not much has changed here. For starters, she still has little to no emotional range. With the exception of her aforementioned sacrifice scene (she actually displayed some decent emotion then), Fox is little more than a series of forced deliveries and blank faces. She can't blame this on a lousy character or bad dialogue this time either, there's plenty here for her to work with (more on the script later).

On the other hand, we do get a much better performance from Amanda Seyfried. Seyfried holds her own decently, with more range than Fox and better control of her character. That being said, I had a hard time buying that somebody as gorgeous as Seyfried (considerably more than Fox imo) would be perceived as a geeky outcast. This is a pet peeve of mine I see all to often in movies, when directors think that simply putting a pair of glasses on a beautiful actress suddenly makes them look unconventional. Overall, the performances in this fail to impress. Fox is awful, Seyfried is better but not great, and the rest are just kind of there. Although, I did get a few chuckles as J.K. Simmons as a one-handed English teacher.

What mainly attracted me to this film was the screenwriter, Diablo Cody. Cody suddenly found herself in the spotlight in 2008 as the former stripper turned Oscar winning screenwriter of 2007's Juno. Her skill for creating quirky characters and writing clever blog-lingo inspired dialogue has had her likened to a female Kevin Smith. I personally loved Juno, and even though I wasn't particularly stoked for Jennifer's Body, I found myself interested enough to check it out. Most of the dialogue in Jennifer's Body is appropriately quirky and witty, but the sheer stupidity of the plot kind of ruined what worked. The concept about the Satan-worshiping indie rockers is incredibly asinine, the ending is too predictable, and the script boasts a number of plot holes that really detract from any potential enjoyability. I wasn't sure if the stupidity of the Devil-worshiping bad was intentional or not. It almost look like it was going for that self-aware, too hip for the room, parody style that Scream made so popular. And of course, if you have read my reviews for the Scream series, you'll know that I never cared for it then either. No matter how you look at it, the movie just isn't that well executed.

Jennifer's Body is one of those movies that had potential but just didn't deliver. The concept had some promise, Seyfried wasn't bad, and I got a few chuckles out of the dialogue. Unfortunately, a lot of the potential success came down to Fox, and she just doesn't deliver. It's not an awful movie, but I can't really recommend it. If the premise sounds interesting to you, it might make for a decent rental, but you'll probably forget about it five minutes after the credits roll.

In short, it's neither scary, sexy, or funny enough to live up to its potential.

My Score: 2.5 Stars out of 5!