• Director: Keith Thomas
• With: Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Michael Greyeyes, Gloria Rueben, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley
• Duration: 1h34
• Music by: John Carpenter
• Based upon the novel ‘Firestarter’ by Stephen King
• Rating: 6/10

Synopsis:

After being experimented on by a secret government entity called The Shop, Andy McGee develops psychic powers and meets the love of his life. Together they have a daughter with a power of her own and The Shop will stop at nothing to get them back.

Review:

In 1984 a first adaptation was released of the Stephen King story Firestarter. In 2002 there was the tv mini-series (and direct sequel) called Firestarter: Rekindled. And now they thought it a great idea to remake the movie. Well I guess some movies shouldn’t be remade! (So far the only remake of a Stephen King story that had the success it deserved was It and It, Chapter 2 – personal opinion) and they are not done with remaking them because a new Children of the Corn movie is on its way (I do not have high hopes for that one) and a new adaptation of Salem’s Lot is bound to be released soon. (That I àm looking forward to)

Back to Firestarter, the redundant remake… I may seem very negative about the movie but all in all this isn’t the worst adaptation, it has great things to say about it… the music, by legend John Carpenter, is the best thing about it! It has the classic sound of Carpenter and fits perfectly in the modern day setting of the movie. There’s Zac Efron, he’s not doing a bad job in this movie either! Neither does Sydney Lemmon… the kid actor, playing Charlie, has a bit of a way to go in acting but she didn’t deserve the negative comments ànd an almost Razzie nomination! (She’s no Drew Barrymore but who is 🤷‍♂️)

Another positive in the movie: they finally got the Native American actor right, something they faulted in the original Firestarter movie!

But yes there are a lot of negative things to say as well: it strays from the original source material (King’s novel) in every way it can… you don’t see anything of the experiment done to Charlie’s parents (apart from a bad scene in the credits at the beginning), there’s too much focus on what happened before Charlie and her father are on the run.

Let’s just say that the movie probably shouldn’t have been made but now that it’s here enjoy it for what it is. Someone who never saw the original might like it, same for anyone who hasn’t read the novel. But die hard fans will shoot it down, I guess…