Firestarter

Movie Name: Firestarter
Year of Release: 2022
Director: Keith Thomas
Starring: Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Michael Greyeyes, Gloria Reuben, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley, Tina Jung, Hannan Younis 
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 1
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Synopsis and Review

After launching his directorial career with the well received "The Vigil", director Keith Thomas decided to tackle the adaptation of one of Stephen King's most charismatic novels, "Firestarter". The film follows the story of the McGee family, comprised of father Andy, mother Vicky and the young daughter by the name of Charlie. They all keep a low profile as Andy and Vicky were actually test subjects for an experimental drug which resulted in them getting special abilities. While their artificially enabled abilities have brought them some physical issues, their daughter Charlie has the natural capability to generate fires, alongside other abilities. The family is being pursued by Captain Jane Hollister who wants Charlie under the control of her department. She enlists the services of John Rainbird to track them. Rainbird eventually locates them, and does more than just track them. He kills Vicky, though Charlie and Andy manage to escape. As they try to make their way to Boston they get helped by a man named Irv, who takes them to his farm and provides some assistance. However they're soon located once again, and this time around Andy is captured, while Charlie manages to escape. She eventually decides to go to the DSI to rescue him.

"Firestarter" had a previous adaptation directed by Mark L. Lester featuring Drew Barrymore in the central role, with supporting turns from George C. Scott, Martin Sheen and David Keith. Though not a great adaptation by any means, that film has withstood the test of time thanks to a solid central performance from Barrymore and the great score from Tangerine Dream. This new adaptation hailing from Scott Teems (who also co-wrote David Gordon Green's "Halloween Kills"), takes some considerable liberties with the original novel (a really good one by the way), but sadly it never injects a fresh perspective or dimension to the characters and events taking place. If anything, Andy and his wife Vicky have even less to do in this feature than before, whereas Charlie in this version while a bit older than the prior incarnation of this character, also fails to exhibit the sheer panic the character always felt from using her power and possibly harming others in that process (that was always her inner conflict). It's a truly terribly executed and ultimately perplexing film hailing from Jason Blum's studio. It feels like an undercooked project where plot points are dastardly abandoned, motivations for characters are risibly brought forth but never truly explained, all wrapped around a film that feels as if though it had a budget of a few cents. For a studio such as Blumhouse which has managed to release fairly interesting features with relatively low budgets, this film actually poses some serious questions on their taste level and actual respect to the original material. Zac Efron and Kurtwood Smith manage to redeem themselves as much as possible, but there's literally nothing much to appreciate about this adaptation. Avoid at all costs.