Caught this earlier today instead of seeing Kick Ass, which I'll be seeing tomorrow with my father. The entire first act crippled the film as effective horror. There was zero build up to Freddy's reveal; credits roll and bam, there he is in his full glory. Without providing any context to the first victim's predicament, there wasn't any suspense or tension leading up to the first kill. The film assumes the viewer knows who Freddy is, and plays it off like a sequel (beginning much the same way Freddy sequels have in the past). The first act fails in every way imaginable on setting up the characters, story, and ground rules of the film. The viewer doesn't even really know who the main character is until a third of the way in. The original Nightmare completely trashes this film in that aspect.
Despite that I enjoyed its delving into the Freddy mythos, and directly tying the children in with Freddy's original crimes. Jackie did a fairly good job portraying a more sinister Freddy, but the script would have served him better had it kept him in the shadows more. The final act with the micro naps and confrontation at the preschool was pretty neat too.
Oh, and I missed Bernstein's theme a lot.