FIRESTARTER (2022)

A remake of the 1984 film that's based upon the Stephen King novel, FIRESTARTER finds the McGee family (Andy, Vicky, and Charlie) on the run from The Shop, a government agency who ran experiments on Andy and Vicky and who also posse telekinetic powers. Adolescent Charlie is beginning to learn while struggling to control her pyrokinetic powers. The Shop tracks them down via a hired hand, and while Andy and Charlie manage to get away, Vicky is not so lucky. The rest of the story is the duo on the run, with Andy attempting to train Charlie on how to control her gift. Having never read the novel and only recently seeing the original, I preferred the 1984 version over this. I did find the pacing of this superior to the original as this comes in at 94 minutes, while the original dragged in parts and registered with a 114 minute runtime. Other than that, the original still beats this out as this is nothing more than an average film. Nothing stands out after watching this: no performance, special FX, costumes, makeup, directing, etc. The performances of the original are much better as well as 9-year-old Drew Barrymore spins together a terrific performance for an actress her age, over 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong. Similarly, David Keith is much more warm and loving father to Charlie than Zac Efron, who comes off very cold and callous. And finally, Art Carney is more likeable as Irv Manders than the alcoholic and "overreacting" John Beasley. I didn't enjoy the original too much to be quite honest, but this remake is even worse. Once again, I don't understand the reasoning for even green lighting this project? I will sign off with a final note this is chock full of identity politics and representation points if you're keeping score at home. 5/10