10- 12 years worth the wait

Rating: 10/10 (9 September 2017)

I still remember this day reading the book when I was 15 or 16. I simply could not put the book down. I felt and still feel that way with all of King's novels, I'm a huge fan. After finishing IT, I was desperate to watch the original film. When I watched it, I was very disappointed. For me, it didn't live up to the book whatsoever. Now, at the age of 27, I re watched parts of the original and it still has the same effect on me. I felt the acting was awful and the screenplay was poorly written and cheesy. IT is not a cheesy story.
Last year, I heard that it was being remade into a two part feature film. Usually when I hear about a new remake to a classic my instant reaction is "What? Why? Its awesome, it doesn't need remaking". But with this remake, I thought "Oh good, I hope this one is an improvement". With IT being remade in two parts, I loved the idea because I felt that it would give writers a chance to keep as close to the book as possible. I've been keeping up to date with the news about it and the hype and to be honest I joined in the hype, I was so excited for it. I went to see it last night, and let me just say to begin with,if there was an opportunity to stand up and cheer at the end credits,I would of done that.
I was instantly hooked to the film as soon as it started, the beginning scene is near enough identical to the book. The rest of the story kept extremely close to the book but there were a lot of new additions to it. The new additions were superb. When I was watching it I thought "Ah that didn't happen like in the book, but wow this new part is awesome!!"
For the scares, they were simply spine tingling. Every single scare was meaningful, none of them felt obnoxious, repetitive or unnecessary. Even the added CGI felt right and actually looked stunning.
The characters kept very strong like they did in the book. You felt for every single one of them. Like King does, he makes you love the ones you're supposed to love and despise the ones you were supposed to hate. It had a huge Stand by Me feel which was fantastic. The actors of The Loosers Club were absolutely amazing. Especially Jaeden Lieberher and Sophia Lillis. I really hope they will keep their acting careers going.
Now for Bill Skarsgård as the evil, twisted Pennywise the Dancing Clown. He was astonishing. Every time he came on screen, I felt a shiver. He was exactly as I imagined the book. There was no cheesiness to him, there was just simply dread and terror. And for Nicholas Hamilton as the insane bully Henry Bowers, he was fantastic. He acted so well as an insane wild animal. He cohorts Belch and Chris were also great. I'm also so happy the character Patrick Hockstetter was put into the film, even though his screen time was quite short it was still good that he was put in.
Like the book, the screenplay was written beautifully with perfect pace for the story and a lot of very funny lines included to lighten the mood at appropriate times. The only little complaint I would add is that I thought the character Mike Hanlon deserved a little bit more screen time but it didn't ruin the film for me.
The cinematography, lighting and set design were stunning. The attention to detail in every part of the frame was excellent. And of course a big round of applause to Andy Muschietti for brilliant directing.
This film has become one of my favourite Stephen King adaptations. I've waited for 10 or 12 years for a decent adaptation of IT and it was worth the wait. Absolutely incredible!! I'm so exited for the next chapter and I heard that Muschietti is directing it which is an amazing step forward.