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So, last night I went with some friends to see the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie.

Why? Good question. I knew the reviews were awful (15% on Rotten Tomatoes) but I became a big fan of the original movies the last few years. In fact, last I checked, you can watch some of the movies in their entireity on YouTube. Nice.

The original movie was revolutionary for its time, blurring the difference between reality and the dream world before CGI took everything over. With technology the way it is today, you'd think a newer effort would achieve that effect with even more ease.

Not so.

The visuals were pretty impressive and Jackie Earle Haley did well enough - he's chronically underrated - but the script was awful.

Can we just get rid of the notion that evil villans laugh maniacally? It's cheesy. Cheestastic.

And as for blurring that line between the dream world and real world, it was more obvious than ever. Get this, if you're a tired teenager being chased by Freddy Kruger and you touch your face, beware, you've just fallen asleep. If you look tired, you're asleep.

I think what bothers me more than anything about this movie was that there was actually so much potential to make this an epic remake. The new Freddy backstory was definitely better - and creepier. But it was often written at the expensive of the better points of the original plotline (the relationship between Nancy and her mother).

The visual effects at times were very impressive. But they were overdone and the old school Freddy mannerisms were just annoying - Freddy, you're already a pedophile and a murderer, stop annoying theatre audiences by scraping your finger-claws against steel.

The dialogue was really, really bad. The stereotypical characters were even worse.

It's really too bad. I really had high hopes for this, but in the end combine any horror movie with the words "Produced by Michael Bay" and nobody wins, not even Optimus Prime.

1.5 out of 5 stars. So much potential, but so much Michael Bay.