Here is My Movie Review of Firestarter 2022
So basically what happens is that you have these parents named Andrew Andy Mcgee and his wife Vicky McGee who are experimenting on in a lab which granted them powers Andy McGee Telepathic abilities Manipulate matter into Into pure energy. Now his wife Vicky McGee who has telekinesis That gives her the ability to go to people's minds. Have their child named Charlie McGee who had the power to us that stuff on fire but she has to control her emotions so she doesn't accidentally kill anyone should care about and then they are traced down by this government and think who wants to kill them and experiment on them and it's up to Charlie McGee and her family too outrun them. That is basically what the story is for this film. To be on the storyline to this movie is pretty bad because it is a absolute rip-off to the movie Logan from 2017 because the exact same thing happens you have Laura who is this young girl who had new abilities and Donald Pierce and his crew try to kill her then Wolverine and Charles Xavier have to protect her along with the young mutants. The only difference is that movie had a much better storyline and it had much better moments. But this film is just not that interesting in terms of storyline or plot because there's not much intense stuff happening in the film.
The acting in this movie is really interesting because believe it or not I think that is the best thing about this entire movie and even in parts where this film is not really good the actors do give really decent performances.
However the absolute big standout of the entire film is Zach Efron as Andrew Andy McGee because even in parts where the film is not working at all he's somehow able to convey so much powerful and brilliant emotion in this performance. Now the character of Andrew Andy McGee is actually really interesting because this is a guy who is very Very overprotective of his daughter Charlie McGee because he doesn't want her to use her powers to kill anybody he wants her to control her emotions and try to hide her powers from the world. The thing where Andrew Andy McGee tells Charlie to burn the facility to the ground is probably the most memorable moment of the entire film because he's essentially telling her that in order to survive he has to die in front of her. It's probably one of the few memorable moments of the entire film. The chemistry between him and Sydney Lemmon, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Gloria Reuben Is decent.
Sydney Lemmon plays Charlie McGee's mother Vicky McGee In the film. I have to say much like with Zac Efron. Even in parts where this film is not working she somehow is able to give a really entertaining performance as this character. Now the character of Vicky McGee Is really Interesting because her husband Andrew Andy McGee she is also overprotective of their daughter and doesn't want Charlie Mcgee to use her power she wants her to control them So she doesn't kill anybody. The scene where Vicky McGee asks Charlie McGee how she is feeling after she went to school is actually a really touching scene because it showed that Vicky McGee really cares about her daughter and just wants her to feel happy. It is one of the most memorable moments of the entire film. The chemistry in between her and that gaffron is decent.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong plays Charlie McGee in the film. I have to say much like the two other performances I mentioned, even In parts where this movie is not working she somehow gave a really powerful and emotional performance. Now Charlie McGee and the character you really feel bad for because she hates having powers and she just wished that she could be a normal girl and the film does a fantastic job of making you feel sympathy towards her. Also the scenes where she is trying to control her emotions or probably some of the most memorable moments of the entire film. Although the scene where she yells at her parents saying that she hates having fire powers and she hates trying to control her emotions it's probably the most powerful and nail biting moment of the entire film. The chemistry between her and Zach Efron is surprisingly perfect.
But the worst performance in this entire film is Gloria Reuben as Jane Hollister because her performance is so flat and uninterested into the point that feels like she is just sleepwalking throughout the movie not to mention she is barely in the film so if you took her out of the movie the film would not be any different. But the character of Jane Hollister is awful because the way I can get the summer up at a villain is that she's a sent to a gender swapped version of Colonel William Striker from X2 X-Men United because think about both Of them like to experiment on people and give them powers and torture them both emotionally and psychologically. But the difference is that Colonel William Striker with an awesome and scary villain well this villain was not. But the biggest problem with Jane Hollister at the villain is that you can't hate her because he doesn't do anything horrific to the characters aside from trying to kill Charlie's dad she doesn't really do anything because at least with Colonel Williams Striker the second you see this character you immediately hate this fucker because this such a prejudice asshole because he hates mutants when he wants to fucking kill all of them because he believed that if he killed them all Because he viewed himself as God. Not to mention Brian Cox gave a way better and scarier performance than Gloria Reuben Because again it just feels like Just did this film as a paycheck. I think she's up there with Maya Sorian from the Adam project as one of the worst villains of 2022. The chemistry between her and Zac Efron is decent.
The directing by Keith Thomas I got to say is the worst thing about this movie because i get what he's trying to do he's trying to make it slightly different from the book in the original 1984 some but it feels like he wanted to make this into an X-Men movie because they mentioned that Charlie and her family were experimented on in a government facility which is very similar to Wolverine's backstory in X2 X-Men United. Now I will say there's one thing that he actually did that was better than the original film and that was to make it a lot darker because a lot of people say that the original film is really cheesy by today's standards and that is relatively true it doesn't hold up really well. So I'll give him credit for a week making this feel slightly darker. But I think overall he did a subpart job directing this film.
So In Conclusion did not like the film. I felt the storyline was not really interesting because it felt like a rip off to Logan because it kind of had the same storyline in that film with the main characters trying to avoid being caught by a government agency. Now there are a few things that I like about this film, one I do think the special effects are way better than the effects in the 1984 Firestarter film because the effects in that film are not that good in fact they're pretty dated. Also I will say most of the performances are relatively decent they're not perfect but they weren't terrible performances to the point that I would say that they ruined the entire film. But the villain Jane Hollister is a really bland and uninteresting villain. Her motivation they're just Colonel Williams Striker's motivations from X2 X-Men United but less interesting. She is probably up there with Kro from Eternals as one of the worst villains of the 2020s. I say this is probably my least favorite Stephen King Movie. This is also up there with The 355 as one of the worst films of 2022. This is definitely in my top 10 worst films of 2022. Also if I made like a top 50 worst films that I have ever seen. This will probably be maybe in the top 30 or maybe top 40. Also this movie is up there with Chaos Walking and one of the worst films of the 2020s. I say just skip this film, go watch The Black Phone with Ethan Hawke or go watch Misery with Kathy Bates. They are much better Stephen King films because they have much better storylines and the films are actually really intense and really creepy. I give this movie a 4/10.
