Flanagan's film needed to be made, and Shining fans will applaud the effort. We really wanted this one to blow us away. At many times in the film, however, I felt the project would have benefited from having a strong and independent story and script editor cut out the too frequent fluff and veering off into language and timing best left in King's book. Too many of the characters were simple devices and lacked depth. In fact, the film, as a whole, too often seemed flat.
Rebecca Ferguson's "Rose The Hat" character seemed to, again, lack depth and often appears to be a fanboy's forbidden crush complete with dangerous curves, a magic hat and colorful braids rather than a nearly immortal, child-killing, soul-sucking banshee. Her minions seem oddly cliche. Kyleigh Curran held her own, but seemed a bit out of her depth - not surprising for a child - but this is what director's and coaches are for. Ewan McGregor was fine - but not particularly compelling, and who could expect him to carry the whole picture?
It's difficult - nearly impossible one could say - to create a successful sequel when significant portions of the sequel recast the original roles and try to recreate original scenes. My advice would have been - for the sake of a moving picture show - to avoid those visual mine fields altogether no matter now much Stephen King asked for it. Pick up the story with adolescent, then adult Danny and let mother, father and the original film be classic misty memories that stand alone. Build on them as they lay.
Overall, good effort that had potential, but you should have re-edited and "killed your darlings" before the final cut.
