Firestarter

Firestarter is a film that feels cheap, looks ugly and manages to be rushed yet still feel boring and needlessly slow. It doesn't really succeed at any genre either, with only a few cheap jump scares as a horror and it definitely fails as a superhero movie.

Ryan Kiera Armstrong does her best with weak material and almost makes it work. It's nice to see Zac Efron in a more dramatic role once again but he's also let down by such bland and lifeless stuff. However, Kurtwood Smith's brief appearance is great and threatens to give the film some actual energy.

Thankfully it is mercifully short and the music by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davis is fantastic, easily the best part of the film. It's infinitely better than anything actually happening and tricks you into thinking something actually interesting might happen.

Very poor, poor effects, poor story, cheesy, so disappointed with this. If you are going to remake a cult classic, then have a look at what made it a classic to start. This is just a lifeless boring sham. If you loved the original film, give this a miss, if you haven't seen the original, then it might just about keep you awake.

Right, well this was a fully and wholly unnecessary remake of the 1984 movie of the same name.

As I stumbled upon this 2022 movie from writer Scott Teems and director Keith Thomas, I have to admit that my immediate thought was 'oh no, another unnecessary remake, just like the 2015 remake of "Poltergeist"'. Yet I opted to sit down and watch the movie, and actually give director Keith Thomas a fair chance with this 2022 version of "Firestarter".

But as I just said above, "Firestarter" was a very unnecessary remake, and if you have seen the 1984 classic with Drew Barrymore, David Keith, Heather Locklear, Martin Sheen and George C. Scott, then you can easily skip on the 2022 version, believe you me.

Sure, if you are unfamiliar with the 1984, then there is some entertainment value to the 2022 "Firestarter", no doubt about it. But for us that have seen the original, then this movie was just water under the bridge.

The 2022 movie stars Zac Efron and Ryan Kiera Armstrong. I can't fathom why they opted for Efron for this movie, but Armstrong was actually nicely cast. The movie also have some good performances from veterans such as Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley, Gloria Reuben and Michael Greyeyes.

Visually then "Firestarter" was nice, of course it was, given it is special effects and CGI made in 2022. But that doesn't alleviate the fact that "Firestarter" is a redundant movie.

My rating of this watered-down remake lands on a bland five out of ten stars.

I should have known better than to be the least bit excited for this. This was bad. The original, was one of my favorite movies when I was young. I was hoping they improved on that. I don't know why. With the exception of Dune (as that's all that comes to mind right now) remakes have traditionally been bad, overall. I don't know why I thought this would be any different. They did very little marketing before it was out. Which is usually an indication that they don't even have faith in their own movie. I should have known better.

Firestarter 2022 is not a total fail but nothing remarkable or at least entertaining - forced at gunpoint to decide, I would prefer to watch again the version from 1984 starring Drew Barrymore. No, I am not a great fan of that one either but it is the more entertaining one of both movies. The new version just rolls on and I watched the whole affair rather indifferently. The technical aspects (acting, cam, production) are okay, but if you know the old version I do not know why one should watch the new one. On the horror-o-meter this one is also a very low one. Final word: redundant.