Stephen King's IT As A Generation X Period Piece

Rating: 8/10 (23 September 2017)

(1.) Independent (If you had never seen the original): Acting: 15/20 Writing: 34/40 Directing/Editing/Production/Etc: 34/40
Overall: 83/100 B
Review: This movie is more of a period piece about what life was like for many kids in Generation X, rather than a "horror story". There is so much negativity and despair without the presence of IT, that IT really only serves as a cherry on top of an already deflated childhood experience. IT is more symbolic of how Generation X were left as "latchkey children" while their Boomer parents were "finding themselves" and otherwise not taking full responsibility for themselves and especially not as parents.
Since the story is more focused on the kids, they are seen much more in this film than IT/Pennywise is. The kids do a decent acting job, they're not awful or "unbelievable" but they definitely weren't trying to win any acting awards in their performances either - except for the kid who plays Eddie Kaspbrak, who does an outstanding job that goes above and beyond all of his peers in this film. While the other kids only did "B" or "C" grade level performances, this kid gave an "A" level performance and in a lot of ways, "stole the show".
From what was seen of IT/Pennywise, the performance was adequate - nothing particularly special in a positive nor negative way. Overall it was a decent performance that didn't really stand out. The performance of IT/Pennywise is usually underwhelming and not very frightening as this film leans more on cliché "jump scares" rather than building any kind of real suspense or dread about the character.
*Spoiler Alert!*
Overall, the film serves as a great representation of Generation X's childhood, as well as representing Boomers and Silent Generationers during this time. The Boomer parents are mostly absent, abusive, overbearing and/or blame the Gen. X kids for perceived problems in their eyes. The Silent Generationers are tough, wise and politically incorrect.
The film has some comedic Gen. X references, such as the recurring theme of "New Kids On The Block", which may very well go over the head of many Millennials.
Unfortunately, part of the trouble of this film was it's goal to serve 2 Gods: Telling a story about Generation X as well as telling the story of Stephen King's IT. The result was that neither stories were able to reach their full potential and the intertwining added a bit of confusion/inconsistency.
*End of Spoiler Alert!*
(2.) Compared To Original TV Mini-Series: Acting: 12/20 Writing: 33/40 Directing/Editing/Production/Etc: 31/40
Overall: 76/100 C
Review: While it was very interesting to place this film in the 1980s and added something new and creative to the story, it also took quite a bit away from the original story and fear of IT, itself.
*Spoiler Alert!*
Part of the brilliance of the original IT, was the story about the "loss of innocence", and this was best portrayed in a 1950s setting - as in the 1980s, the children didn't start with much innocence to begin with. This greatly affected the suspense and scariness of Pennywise's character overall, as well as took away from this film being a "horror" film.
As far as performances go, most of the kids in this film only did as good or lesser than their previous counterparts. This cast of kids didn't have the same chemistry in this film as those in the original and these kids were certainly less charismatic overall than their previous counterparts.
Overall, some changes made were for the better, some for the worst, and some were neutralized by having both positives and negatives.
Unsurprisingly though, the change that hurt this film the absolute most, was the change of Pennywise as Tim Curry is so irreplaceable. The thing about Tim Curry, is that he was a Broadway actor and the talent he had with his voice and acting ability is part of what made the character of Pennywise so iconic and memorable. Curry had captured the perfect essence of Pennywise when it came to look, voice and demeanor. His look and voice were perfect and consistent in their imitation of a clown and his behavior was frightening in the most subtle and suspenseful of manners. He was scary much like a crazy person is, the kind of crazy person that you never know what to expect from. In this remake however, Pennywise looked like an obsessed fan of KISS that wasn't enticing to any children at all and looked more like a "loser" than a "monster" or even a "clown". His voice was terribly inconsistent and a dead giveaway that something was wrong with him, logically serving as a HUGE clue for any kid to run away. His behavior can best be described as something between "silly" and "lame" - either way it was not frightening, compelling or memorable.
Since this movie is such a Hollywood movie and not limited to TV production as the original was, this remake had much more consistent production work when it came to the special effects. However, this lacked a lot of the iconic and memorable scenes, shots and locations that the original had - including the "house" that linked Pennywise to the swamps, as the remake version was much more generic and nowhere near as inherently creepy as in the original. (Go figure.)
*End of Spoiler Alert!*
Overall, this was an interesting take on IT if it took place in the 1980s as opposed to the 1950s - and worth seeing for that reason, but it clearly didn't reach it's full potential and therefore was more underwhelming than it was impressive.
Independent & Remake Scores Combined: Acting: 13.5/20 Writing: 33.5/40 Directing/Editing/Production/Etc: 32.5/40
Overall: 79.5/100 C+/B-
Overall this film was an interesting take on incorporating Stephen King's IT with a Generation X childhood period piece.