This film, like a number of others recently, fell victim to my probably un-meetable expectations.  When it was announced that the next big screen project from Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody was going to be a teen girl horror film, I got excited.  I loved Juno and the idea of a smart script, some sexual awakening metaphors, and a demon possession story seemed like the perfect recipie for fun.  The movie is definitely fun, and the script is full of quick, stylized dialogue, but somehow it never added up to the movie I wanted it to be.

There was a healthy Juno backlash after that film outperformed everyone's expectations and found an audience week after week.  People were quick to pounce on Cody's use of stylized teen language and her detractors won't like Jennifer's Body any more.  For me, the stylized language works.  Sure, I don't think kids really speak like this but the slangy patois seems like a perfect reflection of how kids wished they spoke.  It's easy to make movies like this one that have no style or distinguishing characteristics.  Aside from one clever plot point around how Jennifer winds up possessed by a demon, the film could really be a paint-by-numbers teen monster movie if not for Cody's dialogue. 

It seems as though Jennifer's Body failed to find a wide audience--perhaps it was too stylized for the general audience and too straight forward for the art house crowd.  I didn't think it was a great film by any stretch, but I wish it had performed better than the generic teen slasher films that open to big first-weekend numbers.  This won't be the deathblow for Cody, but it might mean that Megan Fox doesn't wind up in too many more movies where she plays a demon.  That would be fine by me.