Dog’s Movie House: “Firestarter” Not Awful, But Fails To Spark Much Interest!


“Firestarter” tells the tale of the McGees. We have Andy (Zac Efron) and Vicki (Sydney Lemmon) who as college students entered a program run by a government agency simply called The Shop. During the program they were given a compound called Lot 6 that gave them special powers. Andy can “Push,” manipulating minds to do what he wants (kind of a bargain basement Charles Xavier) and Vicki is telekinetic, able to move objects with her mind. The two have a young child named Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) who has not only inherited both her parents’ powers but also has the ability to start and control fire with her mind. As the film opens they are on the run from The Shop, living off the grid so as not to be tracked. Charlie is now twelve and discovers that her mood swings cause her to lose control of her powers, often with disastrous results. One of these results is that, after one particular incident, The Shop finds them and, with the intent of bringing Charlie back into the fold, recruit an old operative named Rainbird (a criminally underused Michael Greyeyes) to handle the job. What follows is a chase picture during which Andy starts to train Charlie on how to control her powers. If you’ve read the book or seen the previous film, you know how that goes.

There are a lot of potentially interesting ideas that don’t get fully explored here, leaving a frustrating sense of incompleteness about the whole affair. Despite some decent set pieces, “Firestarter” is never as involving as it needs to be. Like the previous film it plays more like a piece of action science fiction rather than a horror film, but the details about Lot 6 and the program are never really fully explored beyond a small scene with the doctor (Kurtwood Smith, always welcome) delivering the age old warning about Charlie eventually having the power to cause a global catastrophe. Seriously, Smith deserves a lot better than this. Scott Teems screenplay seems more concerned with the propulsive nature of the story rather than exploring themes and character and the end result is a film that’s barely ninety minutes long but feels much longer. Keith Thomas directs competently enough, but it’s clear he’s going for a John Carpenter vibe (Carpenter is even one of the composers of the film’s music) with Carpenter’s talent.

The performances are decent enough, but the script doesn’t give them much room to breathe. Armstrong shows the most potential as Charlie, but the idea of her struggling with the consequences of actually liking to use her power are only cursorily explored. Armstrong does a good job with what she’s given, especially when it comes to emotional expressions on her face. Efron continues to impress as an actor and he has an easy chemistry with Armstrong, but again the character is too thinly written to care about. Lemmon isn’t in the film long enough to leave much of an impression as Charlie’s mother and Gloria Rueben gets to glower and spout cliched dialogue as the leader of The Shop.

The most wasted opportunity is Greyeyes as Rainbird. He’s a ruthless killer with a conscience, but as written his motivations are all over the place. In one scene he’s killing cops and in the very next scene he’s claiming to be the spiritual sibling to Charlie. It’s an interesting idea as in the original film Rainbird (played by a miscast but game George C. Scott) is all about deception and getting cozy as a confidant with Drew Barrymore’s Charlie, but the script is so scattershot that Rainbird comes off as inconsistent rather than conflicted. Greyeyes has charisma to spare, which makes his character arc all the more disappointing.

Aside from that, “FIrestarter” is a diverting enough film with some entertaining set pieces, but it seems somewhat unnecessary considering what came before. Take my advice and watch this film streaming on Peacock rather than wasting your money at the theater. You’ll be happy that you did. 2 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!

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