Firestarter (2022)

I don't think I have been more disappointed by a recent film than I have by the new adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel, Firestarter. It's no secret I have a certain affection for the original novel as well as the 1984 film. That said, even I would concede there was room for improvement with a new version. However, somehow this one is actually a worse movie by a wide margin.

Charlie McGee (played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong) is a young girl with a very unique talent: She can start fires with just her thoughts. It's a very dangerous talent that she struggles to keep under control, especially in times of emotional duress. Her parents, Andy (played by Zac Efron) and Vicky (played by Sydney Lemmon), participated in a medical test in college where they were injected with a experimental drug called Lot 6, causing them to develop unique telepathic and telekinetic abilities and it is also inferred this is the source of Charlie's abilities as well. This has led to the three of them being constantly on the run, trying their best to live off the radar due to being pursued by a shadow government operation known as The Shop who are very interested in Charlie's abilities. When Charlie loses control of her abilities at school, their cover is blown. The Shop's leader, Captain Hollister (played by Gloria Ruben) taps assassin John Rainbird (played by Michael Greyeyes) to capture Charlie and return her by any means necessary. When Rainbird finds them and Vicky is killed in the confrontation, Andy and Charlie have no choice but to flee, trying to figure out their next move. 

The film was directed by Keith Thomas from a script by Scott Teems, based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. This new rendition takes some pretty big departures from the source material, which I am not necessarily opposed to if the changes are being made to help improve the story. But there is something off with this adaptation. It starts off decently enough as it focuses on the home life of Andy, Charlie and Vicky and how they deal with the unique challenges their family faces, especially with Charlie's very dangerous abilities. They even get into the opposing viewpoints of how Charlie should handle her abilities. Andy, knowing the physical toll his own telepathic abilities have had on him believes she should bury them down and not use them at all, whereas Vicky feels she needs to practice and train to know how to harness them correctly. However, as the film goes on, it starts to feel more and more rushed to get to the climax. This is when the movie diverts from the source material the most with almost a completely different ending, as well as one that feels wholly unearned. Perhaps most disappointing is it lacks the fireworks that the original provided so spectacularly in it's finale, leaving a very muted finale that feels like the whole production ran out of money as much of the destruction Charlie causes is curiously left off screen. Which is a shame, because with all the improved effects over the last 38 years, there was plenty of opportunity to craft some truly bonkers and impressive set pieces for this film. The film also just plods along with no real sense of suspense or tension at all, as though it were just going through the motions. On the other hand, the film does boast a solid score by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies. Which is ironic since John Carpenter was originally supposed to direct the 1984 film until he was fired off the project following the dismal box office for The Thing. 

Zac Efron leads the cast as Andy McGee and is actually decent in the role. It's hard to believe he is actually old enough to convincingly play a father, but he pulls it off quite nicely. He really captures the conflict his character is experiencing as he tries to figure out how to not only raise a child with some real dangerous abilities. Ryan Kiera Armstrong was really good as Charlie. She portrayed both sides of her character quite well, both the part that was afraid of her abilities and what they can do as well as the part of her that sort of enjoys it. Michael Greyeyes certainly adds some more nuance to the character of John Rainbird, who is at once a very effective and efficient government agent, but also one who hates his work and he does a decent job handling that duality. This also adds a interesting connection between him and Charlie as they are both the result of experiments by The Shop and unfortunately this is an aspect that the film utterly fails at exploring properly. Gloria Rueben lacks any sense of real menace as Captain Hollister and is barely established. She does her best with a severely underwritten character, trying to add dimension to the character but it's not enough to save it. 

This remake had some good ideas to it that should have been fleshed out and better explored that would have made for a more satisfying watch. It had the potential to surpass the original given the low bar that film set and yet it managed to mess even that up. There is a certain charm to the original film, along with some truly dazzling practical fire effects, that this film never captures. It's certainly not the fault of the able cast, but rather in either the writing or the editing. It starts out strong, but just gets worse as it goes along, speeding through the story while remaining rather underwhelming. It just smolders when it should be bursting into flame.