Firestarter – Film Review

Firestarter, along with The Shining, was one of Stephen King’s most disliked adaptations. When you watch the 84 adaptation, you understand very well why. We have witnessed many times that some books lose all their literary power when they become movies. Sometimes it’s because of the wrong adaptations, and sometimes because directors change the narratives for their own purposes. It’s an endless paradox. After all, a story is created, and the author wants this story to be processed precisely. Now I’m wondering? What did King say when he saw the 2022 model adaptation? Who didn’t like the ’84 Firestarter movie? You know, they say that the one who comes calls the one who goes; Obviously, we need to watch the adaptation of a film to understand its value nowadays.

Let’s talk about it briefly… Andy and Vicky live in isolation and hide their daughter Charlie from DSI. But Charlie’s emerging abilities become uncontrollable. This puts her on the radar of the organization they are fleeing from. So, Charlie’s transformation brings about an inevitable confrontation no matter how much they run.

84-made Firestarter movie ain’t that terrible, but I can’t say the same things about the 2022 adaptation. First of all, it is a big problem that the story has completely changed. While waiting for a movie with a more dynamic structure, I came across a relatively slow story. The film, which chose to focus more on family drama, missed the book’s essence. The movie should have been focused on the mysterious organization of the deep state and superpowers. Instead of this, the movie persists on the drama, and this choice spoils the nature of King’s novel.

When the story is not compelling enough, cinematography could balance the scale. Unfortunately, the movie does not do an excellent job in this regard either. While the directing, which I find pretty amateurish, does not add any effectiveness to the story. And also, unfortunately, the non-fluent editing arising from bad directing reduces the overall viewing pleasure of the film. The fact that our little girl is shot from a low angle throughout the whole movie becomes irritating after a point.

I think Ryan Kiera Armstrong will be an extraordinary actress in the future. She gave us a broad preview of her potential in Black Widow and IT movies. The only reason why I gave the movie a relatively high rating is Kiera. She did not drop behind with her acting in such a weak movie, and even she got ahead of the movie. I can’t say the same for other players. While I appreciate Zac Afron, one of the reasons I chose to watch the film was Sydney Lemmon, whom I admired in the Helmstrom series. However, he can’t show himself as a victim of the movie.

To sum it up… 2022 adaption Firestarter, which will make the 84 adaptation much more memorable in our eyes, is not a very enjoyable movie to watch with its distance from the story and lousy direction. In fact, it is a pity that the book’s film adaptation, which has an extraordinary story from which many details can be extracted, is far from being so special. Although I can’t criticize ’84’ ​​because of those days’ possibilities, it is a big success, of course ironically, to produce the ’80 model film in 2022 with so many opportunities.