10 Horror Movie Characters That Single-Handedly Ruined Recent Movies
3. John Rainbird - Firestarter
Last year's Firestarter remake had a ton of potential, yet was a non-starter for many fans due to the changes it made to one key character from both Stephen King's novel and the original 1984 film.
In this remake, the character of John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes) is reimagined from a mere assassin sent to track pyrokinetic Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) down, to being a superpowered individual in his own right.
In addition to being an assassin, this version of Rainbird has his own telepathic abilities, and in a sharp contrast from the book and prior film, it ends not with Charlie killing him by setting him on fire, but effectively befriending him.
None of these changes felt even remotely earned or sufficiently fleshed out, ensuring that fans of the source material were left wondering why they were made at all, beyond being different for different's sake.
It's absolutely no fault of Michael Greyeyes, a terrific actor in his own right, but the character as written here may as well have had a different name entirely.