There was a lot of this movie that I really liked. Here's my very long review. There are some spoilers, I marked the big ones. Please excuse any grammatical or spelling errors, I wrote this on a break.
I went in with my reservations about Moretz in this role, but she actually did a very nice job. This version of the film seemed much more tragic then the others. I found myself really rooting for Moretz. Whizzer, I think that Carrie's "spunk" made her much more relatable, to me at least, than the other Carrie's. Now don't get me wrong Sissy Spacek is Carrie, and I don't think that anyone can top that performance, but this version scared me because I felt like it could happen to me as opposed to feeling bad for someone that this was happening to. I wanted to save Spacek as Carrie, I feared being mistreated like Moretz as Carrie. This version was so much sadder for me than the other versions. I could see Carrie's struggle, and her potential to actually be normal.
I also disagree that Carrie shouldn't have any control over her powers. I love the original film, but in the book Carrie leaves the gym and makes a conscious decision to go back and kill them from outside the door. Some of them see Carrie smiling from the inside of the gym. Now that is scary, and I wish one of the three films would have gone further with it.
My absolute favorite part of this movie ::SPOILER:: is after the blood drop, Carrie is about to just leave. Tommy stops her, and then the bucket drops and hits him in the head. Carrie runs over to his body, tries to wake him up, realizes he is dead, and then decides to get revenge. Bravo to the director for having Carrie take in that loss. That really raised the stakes.
I also really liked the social media aspect of this version.
This Tommy was a really sweet guy, and he did a really good job of expressing his genuine interest for Carrie post make over and a genuine concern for her when she was being bullied. He had great chemistry with Moretz, and you could really tell that they were falling for each other at the prom. The two of them had so many "aww" moments. All of this made his death so much more than it was in the other films.
I didn't think that this Sue was as strong as Amy Irving or the one from the 2002 version (I think she may be my favorite) I will say that the actress that plays Sue looks EXACTLY like how I imagined her when I read the book. They didn't incorporate the Trial/Questioning aspect of Sue until the last moment, and I felt like that was a strength of the 2002 movie.
Portia Doubleday was great as Chris. She really went there and totally believed that she was right and justified for everything that she had done to Carrie. ::SPOILER:: She even had a hand in slaughtering the pig, she was ruthless. I hated Chris so much, her interpretation was so exciting. One thing that I didn't like, which isn't the actresses fault, but the writers, is how much of a trail they has Chris leave. She basically text Sue right before the blood drop and hinted that she was going to do something. This Chris would have gone to jail if Carrie wasn't telekinetic, and didn't kill her and everyone else. I didn't believe that anyone was that stupid and would leave such an obvious trail to being caught. I understand why they put it in there to move the story forward as a whole, but it was a little unbelievable for me.
The Billy was good. He didn't have as much to work with as the Billy in 2002, but I believed him.
Julianne more had some good moments, she didn't break the mold or anything, but she was good.
I didn't really like the gym teacher. ::SPOILER:: I really like how Carrie saved her though.
Now some of the effects I must say are ridiculous. When Carrie lifts up Margaret and holds her in the air it just looks bad. My biggest turn off was the way that Carrie left the prom. She legitimately flew out of the door. I get that the water on the floor made it impossible for her to walk out, but in the 2002 version they had a really cool effect where she parted the water and walked through the dry path. That is much more believable and actually cooler than flying over it. I understand that if you can lift things that you can lift yourself, but I didn't like it.
The biggest problem with every version of this film is ::SPOILER:: Carrie doesn't destroy the whole town. In my opinion those are the most exciting parts of the book. The way that Carrie can tap into everyone's mind in the town and they all know that she's coming, that's some of the best stuff. Especially the way the Sue finds her and the moment that they share together in the book. (For those who haven't read the book, Carrie reads Sue's mind and sees that she had nothing to do with the prank. Carrie spares her, dies, and then Sue has her period, or a miscarriage depending on how you interpret the material.) They do something slightly similar in this movie, but the stakes aren't nearly as high as they were in the book. ::SPOILER:: Most of the end is ripped from the 1976 movie. In fact Margret dies in the exact same way. The monologue that Piper Laurie says to Carrie before she kills her in the 1976 version is in this movie. I want a version of this movie to incorporate, the "You gave me darkness Momma" death of Margaret from the book.
Another thing from the book that they've neglected in all versions, I even think in the musical versions, is that Carrie, and Tommy won outright in the book. I think that makes the blood drop even more tragic and makes Carrie's win more of an event. I understand the rigging, but I think there's something to King's choice of people actually voting for Carrie. This also drives Billy's character because he wants to get back at Chris' culture. In the book it says that even if Carrie and Tommy didn't win, he was still going to pull the rope as sort of a statement. That's a very significant character detail for Billy.
All in all, I think that there are stronger moments in this version than the other two, but there are also very weak moments which leave the film kind of imbalanced. With that being said, the 1976 version is a much more consistent film. The strong choices in this version though are very, very strong.
There are moments of gold in all three films. If we had a mash-up of the best elements from all three, we'd have a near perfect film. This almost tempts me to put together a scene by scene version using all three films.
Updated On: 10/20/13 at 03:03 PM