I actually revisited the 1984 adaptation of Stephen King’s Firestarter a few days ago, and it turns out, it’s not a particularly great movie. Though, it does have some pretty cool elements within it. Though, one could easily see where a new adaptation could potentially improve things. Having now seen the new film, which comes from director, Keith Thomas, and screenwriter, Scott Teems, I think this new version does follow through on some of those improvements. But at the same time, I’ve come to realize that maybe the source material just does not offer all that much to begin with.
If you aren’t familiar with the story, it involves a father and daughter duo, Andy McGee (Zac Efron) and Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), respectively. These two are on the run from the law, but not just the law, it’s a secret organization that wants them gone. These two aren’t normal after all, they possess powers. After taking part in an experiment from this secret organization, Andy developed telepathic powers, along with his soon-to-be wife, Vicky (Sydney Lemmon), who developed telekinetic powers. When they had a child, she was born with the ability to, you guessed it, start fires with just a mere thought.
Of course, given that Charlie is so young, she struggles to control her powers, as we see in sequences where she tries her best to hold her emotions back in school. Things naturally don’t go well, and the family finds themselves targeted by a bounty hunter called John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes). Vicky is killed in the process, and Andy and Charlie have to survive on their own, doing whatever they have to in order to keep each other alive and away from “the Shop.” This happens to be the point in the story where the original film started.
When I say the source material may not offer much, understand that this is coming from someone who hasn’t read the book. But just going by these two adaptations, both of which have their differences, but are mostly the same, either both adaptations fail to cover the depth that might be in the novel, or there isn’t much to begin with. It’s all a little too simplistic and straightforward. Not necessarily a bad thing, but there is this feeling like you only ate half a meal. Despite adding more to the story, this film is somehow 20 minutes shorter than the 1984 film.
The differences are mainly in the characters of Vicky and John. Vicky mainly appeared in brief flashbacks in the original, but this time around, we get a deeper sense of who she is, and how she feels about raising a child like Charlie, and how that differs from Andy’s approach. There’s good stuff in these moments, and both performers bring all they can into making this feel believable. John Rainbird is perhaps the biggest improvement here, much respect to George C. Scott, but Michael Greyeyes is genuinely intimidating and layered in his performance. At times, he’s like the Terminator, and in other moments, you can see real vulnerability slip through. I think where they take his character in the end could have been fleshed out a bit more, but I was really digging his vibe.
Similar to the original film, there’s a point just past the halfway mark where the film’s momentum comes to an abrupt halt, and it starts plodding along to the end. While the climax is certainly entertaining, the home stretch getting there was a slog, and I felt this way even in the original film. It’s not so much to do with the filmmaking itself, so much as the plot requires this turn to happen as a way to set the stage for the big, explosive climax.
Honestly, the best thing about the new Firestarter is the score. While Tangerine Dream certainly did memorable work with the original, the score from John Carpenter (who was famously fired as director of the original film after The Thing bombed), Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies brings a moody, grungy, and propulsion energy that I enjoyed a lot. That was the one thing I was most looking forward to about this, and it did not disappoint. As far as the filmmaking goes, I felt Keith Thomas showed some promise following his debut, The Vigil, and though nothing here is as interesting as that film, most of it is reasonably effective and competent enough, the effects are quite good, although I was not a fan of the cold and desaturated color grading that gave the film an unfortunately drab and gloomy look. So, while I think this film improves upon the original film overall, especially in terms of the musical score and the performances, Ryan Kiera Armstrong is especially great here, it still doesn’t necessarily add up to an overall great film. It’s solid, it gets the job done, and there are some cool stuff you experience along the way, but it’s not one that will linger with me after a while.
Firestarter is now out in theaters and streaming on Peacock.