damn disgusting fire starter The review is spoiler free.
The Stephen King Renaissance continues with a modern adaptation of his 1980 novel, fire starter. Considering the lackluster response to the 1984 adaptation, it’s likely that it was long overdue. But the real question is whether there is any thematic depth or storytelling amidst the current oversaturation and popularity of superhero cinema. While the vigil director keith thomas get fire starter With an energetic and engaging start, this new look ultimately fails to ignite.
The exhibition of how couple Andy (Zack Efron) and Vicki (sydney lemon) gained supernatural abilities, courtesy of an experiment, is broadcast in the opening credits. A nightmare sequence later, fire starter jump ahead a decade, where Andy and Vicky try to raise their talented daughter Charlie (ryan kiera armstrong) and avoid detection by the federal agency that would claim them. As if being perpetually on the run wasn’t exhausting enough, Charlie is losing her fight to suppress his growing powers. He cues an incendiary event that puts the family back on the agency’s radar, putting them all in danger.
(from left) Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) and Andy (Zac Efron) in fire starterDirected by Keith Thomas.
Written by halloween kills scribe Scott’s Teams, fire starter breaks down into two very different halves. The first half builds the dynamic of the character and sets the emotional stakes. Andy and Vicky are loving parents but with two distinctly different approaches to raising a young child with immense fuel power. Complicating the conflicting ideals are the contrasting but similar ways in which their diminished abilities are ill-equipped to support and control Charlie’s tenuous restraint of emotions, often resulting in catastrophe. Zac Efron brings a lot to the role of him, doing a lot of heavy lifting in the front half.
Once Rainbird (michael gray eyes) fully enters the equation, causing a more intense change of action with the family on the run, the script goes off the rails. Early explorations of morality and consequences are ditched in favor of pyrotechnics, choppy, bland action sequences, and barely-played archetypal bad guys in Captain Hollister (glory ruben).
Everything is significantly underdeveloped. There is a clear arc intended for Rainbird, a significant departure from the source material, but Greyeyes is woefully underused. While fire starter wants to make Rainbird a towering central antagonist, her screen time is too limited, and the embarrassing dialogue too cryptic to fully grasp motivations and identity.
Michael Greyeyes as Rainbird in fire starterDirected by Keith Thomas.
The entire rear half rushes. It eschews the source material in favor of a stripped-down narrative set in a nondescript concrete installation. A central infighting is neatly resolved with a simple montage. Scenarios, major confrontations, emotional payoffs, and the climax are presented so randomly that none of it lands. The goodwill built up in the front half is wasted by the bizarre storytelling and stylistic choices.
It results in a disjointed adaptation involving two very different characteristics at divergent levels of craft. It feels like bits of the story have been removed, leaving remnants that point towards something more interesting. Its protagonists are doing much better, they all have a little more work and time to develop them. The antagonists are written so smoothly and vaguely that fire starter it quickly collapses once the narrative tries to broaden the scope beyond the cozy bubble of family. Despite a great performance from Zac Efron, some hilarious charred corpses, john carpenterTop score and fast pace fire starter ends up mirroring Charlie’s story too closely. A promising start is crumbled by the desire to burn everything.
fire starter Theatrical releases and at Peacock on May 13, 2022.