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"A Nightmare on Elm Street" (2010) Reviews

First off, let me say that I know this movie is bound to be slaughtered by fans of the original. This remake offers far too many opportunities to be compared to the original for it to come out with mostly potive reviews. No, I’d say that most will be bashing this one into the ground.

Well here’s my take (MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW):

I'm back from seeing a midnight showing of this. Rather than compare it to the original, I’d like to look at it for what it is. The nightmares start in the very first scene. Honestly, right after the credits roll, we are treated to both the first look at our killer and the first on-screen death. Obviously they weren’t going for subtlety with this one… and that’s bacally a trend throughout. Freddy Kruger is there and he’s in your face from start to finish. This puts a damper on any attempt at character development (although they did seem to try with Kris) and ultimately leaves you wondering what corner Freddy will pop out from next, rather than actually making you worry about the characters. But even so, the very first kill is very impresve in my opinion. The candor and outright brutality of it was a good way to kick things off (a little early, but it is what it is). Kris’ death, although far too familiar, was effective enough do to decent effects and the fact that they let us spend more than 5 minutes getting to know her. That was about it for me as far as giving a shit about the characters. From then on, the pieces of the plot seemed so scattered that it was hard for me to stay interested.

They tried WAY too hard to stick close to the original story. The addition of

scenes like Freddy’s image morphing out from the wall (curse you, bad CGI!!!) , the body bag scene, and his glove coming out of the bathtub seemed terribly out of place and were unnecessary. For goodness sake, what’s wrong with coming up with NEW visuals?! I mean, it’s a remake but what’s the point if you don’t change things enough to make it your own (I’m looking at you, Rob Zombie). That’s one of the reasons that I ended up enjoying the F13 remake as much as I did. It was a remake, sure… but it was different enough to stand on it’s own.

The scares in this movie were predictable and not… you know, scary. The group in my theater hardly budged. They were all jump scares with Krueger popping out from here and there (one time literally saying, “boo”). Still, after the initial “scares”, there was Freddy Krueger. He’s bacally what we all wished for, I’d say (apart from him not being all that frightening). Haley pulls of a much darker, and above all, pissed-the-fuck-off Freddy in this one. I liked the realism of the new look, and I think it helped me to take it more seriously. The fact that Freddy was still entertaining, along with some entrancing visuals at times, kept me content enough to make it through without too much bitching. Also, the added aspect of “innocent victim or child molester” was definitely interesting and the journey toward finding out the truth was intriguing.

Now for the all important “bottom line”. After all is said and done, it’s not different enough. It’s not scary enough. It doesn’t have what it takes to make it a complete film. The lack of character development and suspense hurt. As always, I didn't like the CGI effects. There were plot holes (which could still be filled within a sequel, I suppose). The writing was both terrible and tremendous at times. Freddy was cool. I liked him (although most people will probably hate him nce his last name isn’t “Englund”). There were some cool deaths scenes, and some that were not so cool. The pace of the movie never allowed me to settle in, and the final showdown seemed rushed (complete with a terrible line by the hero before doing away with the villain). Overall, I’d call the remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street a very uneven movie in many ways.

I’d like to think that my criticism was forced by the film’s imperfections. I certainly wasn’t looking for things to dislike. So there you have it. I’d give it a 6/10 for the things that they got right.

SPOILERS

I've thought long and hard about this film, and being the huge Freddy fan that I am it is hard for me to ignore all the bad aspects of the film. However that does not mean I did not like it. For starters I must say that Jackie Earle Haley did a fantastic job as Freddy, he made the movie worth watching. Freddy's new look, in my opinion, was great, and his anger towards the kids really draw you into the character.

Now as for the new aspect of the films story line, instead of following the original of Freddy being a child murderer, they took a different path and went with the child molester motive. I quite enjoyed that, the creepiest parts of the film to me were the flashbacks of Krueger with the children before his death. He seemed like a nice guy but as we all know he is up to no good.

That being said I think its time to state what I didn't really care for. I felt the movie was totally out of whack, there were scenes that really served no purpose, and al lot of those scenes were taken directly from the original (i.e the bath tub, body bag, etc) and a majority of the acting from the teenagers was just god awful. It seemed to me like they were each trying to out act one another, so there was no syncopation within the characters.

Also there were a lot of plot holes throughout the film. For example when Nancy starts to have micro naps, prior to this happening it shows no gns of her trying to stay awake, or how long she's been awake. 1 scene she's fine and the next she cant stay awake. Also, if Freddy was just a child molester why did he make the glove? He didn't want to kill anyone (as far as we know) Then there were the parents who didn't do a very good job of keeping a secret. The mother kept the class photo and Quentin's father never made any attempt to deny anything when questioned about it.

Now I'm going to get to the ending, the Freddy vs. Jason line I could of done without, and original ending with a new twist completely ruined the ending of the movie. It does leave the question "was it all a dream?" and why did he kill the mom when his anger was aimed at the children?

I give this movie a 4/10, Freddy was the best thing about it and a lot of the deaths were average and didn't have that "wow" factor. The story lacked in crucial parts and it suffered for it. I think if they make a sequel with a new director and new writers it has all the potential to be a kick ass movie. And although this movie let me down, I still have faith that another nightmare will be ten times better, and when it comes out I'll be right there in the theater to watch it.

Good and fair reviews thus far guys. Im going to see the film tomorrow and the one thing I am really looking forward to is JEH. He's such a good actor, im glad to hear he pulled it off!

Now, the question i want to ask is where does this stand amongst the rash of recent remakes....H1/H2; Hills Have Eyes 1/2; TCM; F13; THE FOG; LHOTL;....?

OK, i know im going to be cyber-crucified for this... but ill do it anyways. I thought this movie was f**king awesome! I understand why alot of people hate it already for reasonable and not so reasonable things.But i came out of the theater satisfied. Yes there were some things that weren't so good...(CGI wall scene,bathtub scene,etc.) but at the same time there was, in my opinion, alot to like.

1.The antagonist actually has more than 15 minutes of total screen time.

2.The almost "W.C.'s New Nightmare" type of freddy.

3.J.E.H. played a damn fine Krueger.

4.The one-liners were still there, but in a darker more sadistic way as opposed to the outright goofy and cheesy ways of the past.

5.the "innocent or evil" aspect was a very unexpected aspect to me.Very refreshing.

6.This doesnt really count as a reason, but the "i was just petting him" line almost made me bust out laughing in the theater.

Anyways, i know there's alot of nay-sayers on this one, but i personally thought it was a damn fine movie for what it was. If not anything else...at LEAST watch it once to give it a chance.

I do agree with the first review, very much so JEH

was spot on! His entire performance was awesome, but i did feel like the whole film was rushed especially with nancy

first shes this quiet little emo girl who has nothing to say then the last 20 mins she wants to start having an opinion. I tried i really did try to want to love this movie, but I just cant, the cast was awful, the writing made no sense, the story was just too thin. There were some great kill scenes especially the first one, and Jackie was awsome as usual! But I cant force myself, and i went in with such high hopes!

Well, i saw it the other night......

The good- -JEH was great, he played a mean, lean and brutal Freddy.

-Loved his new face and I agree that the creepiest scenes were those flashbacks! very disturbing. -The film had a good look to it, very dark and dreamy.

-The pacing was fine, and I enjoyed seeing more of Freddy.

-Oh, the new glove was brutal as well.

the bad- -The girls who played nancy and chris were fine, they were hot and their acting was decent. I think the writing was the real fault.

-the guy who played Quentin was terrible. Couldnt act and had a god awful hit me face. -the writing....bad, shitty dialogue. etc. -the kills.....why give us a more nister Freddy and wimp out on the kills? Even when Dean stabs his own throat, it was too nice and neat. Give it some brutality.

does anyone know if there will be a director's cut? i really wanted to like this film, it was ok....but they wimped out on us. A stronger writer and director could have made this movie great. As it stands, its in the middle of the road.

-the guy who played Quentin was terrible. Couldnt act and had a god awful hit me face.



very,very true.lol

Check out my review of the NOES remake, on my new horror review te:


href="http://cinematichorrorarchive.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/a-nightmare-on-elm-street-2010/">http://cinematichorrorarchive.wordpress ... reet-2010/

In my opinion, NOES 2010 was an o.k. movie. Some of the things in the movie impressed me while others, not so much. Nightmare on Elm Street is a fun series to watch. I was excited to hear that JEH was playing Freddy. He is an awesome actor and fit the role perfectly. The way Freddy was degned seemed so much more realistic as if he was someone who was burned horribly in a fire (of course). I liked the plot and the back story. Freddy's attitude and one-liners just hit the spot.

Here are the things that I was disappointed by in the film... The killing scenes were too close to the original and CGI killed them. Might as well say it was like they were beating a dead horse. I thought the movie was too short and could have had more in it. The makers of this film seemed to be not very creative with a lot of things. On that note, Michael Bay is an oppote of King Midas. Everything he touches turns to crap.

Out of a scale of 1-10, I give this film 6/10.