A Stephen King adaptation is boringly remade as Firestarter. This version of the 1984 original has an abridged plot that leads to a puzzling ending. A significant change in the middle of the film confused me greatly. The second act of Firestarter drags on endlessly/ seems never-ending. Characters are able to move on after tragedy as if they were balls bouncing back and forth. Horror elements are interspersed with pyrotechnic effects and gory make up. It is a relief from choppy nature of its plot slightly. This leaves Stephen King’s fans out in the cold.
Andy (Zac Efron) and Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) McGee are thrilled by their daughter’s birth. They realize how terrifying fire in the nursery turns out to be when they discover it isn’t accidental, but Charlie did it with her mind power already developed at such an early age! Having this ability means she could start fires just by thinking about them.
Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) is constantly bullied at school while she is still young. Other kids find her strange because she lacks a mobile phone, computer or goes online at all for that matter. Once Charlie’s powers emerge when she is extremely excitable, Andy tells her she must learn to bury them deep down within herself so as not cause any accidents ever again; however, Vicky disagrees—she wants to train her to use those powers instead! Eventually, though, DSI will get hold of their daughter through its shadowy agents who are always close behind them every step.
The Department of Scientific Intelligence (DSI) promotes new captain so as he finds the girl herself Hollister (Gloria Reuben). One more dangerous telekinetic unleashed by Hollister John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes), makes a good adversary for him. However hard Andy and Vicky try to shield Charlie from his pursuers; she can only save herself. This means that Charlie must develop her destructive powers to challenge DSI.
Firestarter is never as hot as it seems in the beginning. The moment Charlie’s parents separate their ways; melodrama begins taking over the entire story. Also, scenes at school where Charlie is are highly effective. She was a ticking time bomb waiting for a trigger. The film unravels Andy and Vicky’s backstory while Charlie becomes more uncontrolled. After all this, a shock of graphic development occurs and again the second act slows down to a crawl. They fall into the same old horror genre motion picture tropes as foolishly behaving when there are obvious fight-or-flight choices for any reasonable person.
The main characters do not have any rapport together whatsoever. Armstrong and Efron lack any resemblance of father-daughter relationship that would seem believable in real life. Zac Efron is an actor with diverse roles. He behaves strangely when interacting with his fellow child performer like he does in this movie; he appears robotic here somehow! Armstrong acts throughout the film in one manner only; she looks angry and ready to burn something up anytime/ full of anger with fire burning deep inside her soul every other minute or so.
Keith Thomas, who previously directed The Vigil, needed to add complexity on paper and screen because kids aren’t just simple beings when it comes to what they want & need out of existence (King). This missed chance could have given the protagonists added depth.
Firestarter ends in a totally different direction than expected by anyone but has very little effect on anyone especially me personally at least (Barker 3). It is stunning in an incomprehensible fashion. Climax undoes everything built up by the plot earlier on—every single thing! I guess filmmakers wanted to completely change from its source material after keeping close to two-thirds runtime or so before ending everything differently during that period, which is why I assume they came up with this idea. This twist in the tale was rather uninspiring. Firestarter’s end was not that satisfying.
This includes Blumhouse Productions, Weed Road Pictures, BoulderLight Pictures and Angry Adam Productions.
Watch free movies on Fmovies
