Rating: 4.9
Is there some secret rule that for every one great film based on a Stephen King book, there must be 5 that suck? Because wow… this one is not only one of the worst adaptations of King’s works, but also manages to be worse than the 1984 adaptation (and I thought that one was bad). The film is exceedingly mediocre and forgettable, and isn’t with your time at all. Hell, it’s not even worth my time to review it, so I’m going to keep this short.
The movie as a whole just made my eyes roll. It completely butchered King’s original story, with half the movie taking place before the book even begins and the rest inserting select moments into this deformed plot. It felt like the writer didn’t even read the book, this had a whole different story that made no sense and a very different tone. It completely changes characters and plot points in a ridiculous fashion. I hated that they went with a superhero theme over the horror focus that it’s supposed to be, it just didn’t work and made it feel even more so like a story we’ve seen 100 times before. The ending was also completely different and genuinely pissed me off as a fan of the book, what they did to change it wasn’t earned and pretty much came out of nowhere. That’s because the movie feels like it’s missing parts, the film had a lot of dramatic gaps in story and character arcs. The film was just edited so weirdly and on top of that it cut away from people getting burned a lot, which really didn’t make sense considering they could have shown it for the rating. I also didn’t like the ADR use, it was very sloppy and noticeable when actors had re-dubbed their lines. But it’s okay… because the dialogue was cringe-inducing too so either way it wouldn’t matter if the ADR was good or not.
The movie was just so poorly made. I genuinely could not take it seriously at many points, and found some aspects to be laughable. Many cast members also were poorly miscast, especially Zac Efron as the dad (who I couldn’t take seriously in his role), however the girl who played Charlie was okay for the most part (too bad she wasn’t given better material). The film's direction was bland, and same goes for the cinematography, but the one technical aspect I did appreciate was John Carpenter’s (yes, THE John Carpenter who made Halloween) score for the film. But unfortunately even that couldn’t save the film from being a slogfest. I didn’t enjoy this. It was 90 minutes of pure boredom and some creative decisions made infuriated me. One of the worst Stephen King adaptations I’ve ever seen, even worse than “The Dark Tower” movie from a few years ago… it truly massacred this story. Why change it anyways? Just don’t go see this movie, it’s a waste of time. If you’re interested in this story… just do yourself a favour and read the book.
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IMDb Rating: 4.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 12%
RT Audience Score: 51%
Metacritic Score: 32
CinemaScore: C-
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Universal
Directed by Keith Thomas
Screenplay by Scott Teems
Based on the novel by Stephen King
Cast: Zac Efron, Ryan Keira Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Michael Greyeyes, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley, Gloria Reuben
Runtime: 1hr 34min
Rating: 14A
Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
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A young girl tries to understand how she mysteriously gained the power to set things on fire with her mind.
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Fun Fact: John Carpenter, who did the music for this film, was set to direct the original Firestarter (1984), but was replaced when his previous film,The Thing (1982), failed at the box office. He would instead direct another Stephen King adaptation, Christine (1983).
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