Firestarter

Based on Stephen King’s novel, Firestarter follows Zac Efron’s Andy as he and his young daughter (Ryan Kiera Armstrong’s Charlie) are forced to go on the run after Charlie’s pyrokinetic abilities begin to surface. Filmmaker Keith Thomas, working from Scott Teems’ screenplay, delivers a hopelessly uninvolving adaptation that strikes all the wrong notes right from the get-go, as the movie’s been saddled with a sluggish pace that ultimately highlights and exacerbates its myriad of less-than-compelling attributes – with Karim Hussain’s palpably low-rent cinematography and the predominantly underwhelming performances ranking high on the picture’s list of problems. And although the film admittedly does boast a very small handful of compelling stretches, with the climax generally faring better than one might’ve anticipated, Firestarter comes off, for the most part, as a complete and total missed opportunity that often feels much, much longer than its 94 minutes.

*1/2 out of ****