Meh

Rating: 6/10 (15 March 2020)

Upon first few viewings in the theatre, I had a much more positive reception to this film. With the passing of time, however, the cracks start to show and the positive opinions have now given way to reveal the negative underneath the positive.
It's perhaps most important to start with the positives and highlight what this film does correctly. The relationship the kids in the film share is amazing. The chemistry between them is second to none and, considering it consumes the vast majority of the screen time, is a major positive talking point. There's a definite feeling that these kids have been friends for the better part of their lives, and the viewer can easily relate to each of them on a certain level. Everybody knows somebody like each of these characters. The movie creates a drama with them reminiscent of Stand By Me, with some of the very same coming-of-age elements that King so likes to write.
This film also gets a better representation of the book, choosing some of the stronger points and leaving behind the filler, making this a passable adaptation of a book that I never thought to be that great to begin with. It's better than the 1990 miniseries version in that aspect. When writing for the TV audiences, there's only so much you were permitted to portray on TV, which is the only major shortcoming of the original miniseries.
Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise is decent enough, offering a menacing performance despite nearly everyone of his appearances being ruined by digitally enhanced attempts to make him scary. Which is where the negative aspect begins to come into play.
This movie just isn't scary.
Many attempts have been made to justify this, the weakest being that the film is told from the point of view of these kids and, thus, what is scary to them is what we see. That, of course, is redundant given that the film is general deemed unsuitable for that age demographic by many critics and review boards.
Bill Skarsgard is robbed of the chance to give a decent performance by the subpar CGI that permeates this movie. A character truly menacing on its own is destroyed by digitally altered teeth, ridiculous visual distortions and that run that easily ranks among the worst artefacts of horror movie history. It's not creepy, it doesn't induce anxiety, it offers nothing to the story. It simply exists to be the laughingstock of the film and to take audiences out of the story.
Pennywise is far more frightening on paper. Being a creature of fantasy it's simply impossible to accurately portray IT and be realistic. And perhaps that's for the best. Perhaps this is a story that belongs in the hearts and minds of the Constant Readers who picked up the book and enjoyed it, and who return to the book time and time again (I am not one). The 1990 miniseries had it's flaws and laughable special effects, but the cheapening of this film by the horrid effects is much more successful in destroying a movie that could've been great.