It seems like there’s been something of a Stephen King resurgence, with new adaptations of his better-known work. King’s heyday, both creatively and in terms of cinematic output, was probably the 80s. And while some of those movies are rightfully considered classics, there sure were a lot of duds since King apparently would sell the rights to anything he wrote, and his known drug addiction may have had something to do with it. Now, with special effects perhaps at a level that can really capture the things he wrote about, some of his work has been redone to varying levels of success. Case in point: there’s a new Firestarter. I did see the original movie with Drew Barrymore not that long ago, and I thought it was decent at times. Would the new one succeed where that one didn’t quite land?
I mean, is this new movie going to be closer to, say, IT Chapter One or Pet Sematary in terms of quality? This new Firestarter did come from Blumhouse Productions, and they’re pretty well known for making good horror movies that allow creators a good deal of creative freedom as long as they stay within Blumhouse’s budgetary requirements, so that might be a promising sign.
Charlie McGee (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) is 11 years old and has a huge secret: she has a number of psychic powers, most notably the ability to start fires with her mind. Her parents, in their college years, volunteered for a series of experiments in what they were told was a drug trial that gave them both some psychic ability. Charlie, as their daughter, managed to inherit such abilities and more besides. As such, the family is on the run from the shady government agency that would just assume lock them all up for experimental purposes. Sure, the agency’s new head Captain Hollister (Gloria Reuben) says she just wants to help, but that’s debatable. What may not be is what Charlie’s parents do. Father Andy (Zac Efron) wants Charlie to repress the ability so the family will never be caught. Mother Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) wants to train Charlie so she can control the power. However, Charlie’s abilities are growing stronger, and that decision may be taken out of their hands very soon.
That may be sooner than her parents thought. An outburst at school gets the agency looking in Charlie’s direction, and Hollister assigns John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes) to bring at least Charlie in. Rainbird is a highly trained assassin with some abilities of his own, and he hates himself for it. But with so many people looking for Charlie, it is only a matter of time before she lashes out. The only question will be whether she does so by choice or not.
As much as I might have thought the older movie was maybe only so-so at times, at least it seemed to know how seriously to take the material. This newer version is trying for something deeper where even the villains aren’t some irredeemable evil types. That’s most obvious with the Rainbird character. While played by an actual indigenous actor this time around, the effort here is to make the man more sympathetic by showing he doesn’t want to do what he does. But he does it anyway, and his actions may be unforgivable. Likewise, the people at the agency, even the old scientist who created the mystery substance (Kurtwood Smith), don’t want to turn Charlie into a weapon and see her existence as possibly tragic more than anything else.
And yet, the movie takes itself too seriously, with no one aside from Smith giving any sort of performance I found worth noting. The music isn’t bad, but that may be due to the fact it was co-written by John Carpenter. This movie just isn’t very fun, and when Charlie finally intones “Liar, liar, pants on fire,” it struck me more as a moment where the movie wasn’t sure what tone it wanted to take. There’s some additions to the lore of this world, so to speak, that could make for interesting developments, but since the movie can’t even seem to decide how much to take itself seriously, I can’t say there’s much here worth seeing. If you want to see a Firestarter movie, stick to the one with Drew Barrymore. It might be more hokey, but at least it’s still fun.
Grade: C-
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