I wouldn't say that I was necessarily excited for Carrie, but I was looking forward to seeing it. First of all, the 1976 Carrie is by far one of my favorite movies. Not to mention the fact that I love the original book by Stephen King. I will admit that after seeing the first teaser I was a bit concerned and even after seeing the full trailer I wasn't too pro on this remake. However, I did say I would see it. Now that I have seen it I wouldn't say it was completely atrocious, but it was pretty darn bad.
I want to start off by saying something that I said a long time ago: Chloe Moretz is too pretty to be Carrie White. Seriously, she is a really cute girl and appears to be very lively. Carrie is not lively and is supposed to be fairly plain and not necessarily pretty. This was an issue for me throughout the entire movie. Even when they attempted to make Moretz appear plain and a little ragged it didn't work. If they were determined to put her in this movie I would have given her the role of Sue Snell. But she was Carrie and I wouldn't say she did a terrible job but she wasn't on par with what she has done in the past. I have a fairly high expectation from Chloe Moretz because she is that good. In this movie I think she was held back and it was an unfortunate case of bad direction and a poor script. Her sweetness is believable and even the creepiness, but for some reason it didn't all come together. She was definitely just out of her element.
Julianne Moore did a fantastic job, though. She played Margaret White wonderfully. Not the same as Piper Laurie, obviously, but she did it good. As for the rest of the cast I wouldn't compliment any of them, especially Judy Greer. I really like Greer and I think she is a great comic actress, but she was so bland and flat in this movie. Comparing her to the original gym teacher played by Betty Buckley it was borderline insulting. Billy Nolan was a waste of a character in this one, too. Alex Russell probably has a grand total of 5min of screentime.
As far as direction goes, I think Kimberly Peirce really missed the mark here. She was coming off a great movie with Boys Don't Cry, but I have to remind myself that was 14 years ago already. Peirce hasn't directed since 2008 with the military drama Stop-Loss and I'm beginning to think there is a reason she only has three major films under her belt.
One thing that I thought would bother me that surprisingly didn't was bringing the story into the present day. Yes, the kids had cell phones and video cameras and the cliques were a lot more pronounced but I wouldn't say it didn't work. I thought it worked pretty well. The beginning "plug it up" scene played into the whole movie due to the fact that Chris Hargensen recorded everything on her cell phone and posted it online. It brought it up to the times and it was believable.
Now I must mention what really irked me and unfortunately there are spoilers, so if you haven't seen Carrie yet and don't want to know... go away and come back after you've seen it!
Last chance.
And welcome back.
The main thing that bothered me here is the fact that Carrie's telekinesis was way overused. It got to a point where she was doing it to a ridiculous point. Like when she was sewing her prom dress and moving the foot pedal with her mind. Unnecessary. Just plain unnecessary. I also don't like how Carrie is portrayed when using her telekinesis. It looked like she was having an orgasm whenever she was making something move or attacking someone. It looked like she was trying to use the force from Star Wars rather than look at something and make it move. It was stupid. That and the fact that Carrie could basically fly, but that is not important.
Aside from that the main thing that bugged me was the ending.
1. Carrie lets just about everyone at the prom escape, including the gym teacher.
2. After Tommy is killed, Carrie has this moment onstage where she mourns for him and everyone stops laughing at her. She then decides to go nuts on everyone because Tommy died and not because of the original blood prank.
3. Sue going to Carrie's house was ridiculous. I would have preferred that Sue's story end with her being traumatized like in the original.
4. Carrie being able to tell that Sue was pregnant was the dumbest thing I have ever seen. I was done at that point.
It was a terrible ending to a bad remake. I wouldn't recommend Carrie unless you just don't give a shit. It's worthy for a few laughs and to see Julianne Moore play crazy, but that is about it.
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