Surprisingly entertaining and quite enjoyable!

Rating: 7/10 (11 February 2018)

Review:
I really didn't have high hopes for this movie, as I'm not a fan of horrors but it actually turned out to be quite enjoyable. The freakish looking Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard), was pretty scary, and the whole "kids vs the baddie" has been done to death but I liked the character building throughout the movie, and the fact that each kid had there own story. When I saw that the film was over 2 hours long, I did think what the hell the director could do with a scary clown which feeds off kids for that amount of time but now that I've seen the movie, I can see that he spent some time for the audience to get to know each individual, who had there own reason to tackle the terrible monster. Anyway, the movie is set during the summer of 1989, we're a group of 7 kids, Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), Richie (Finn Wolfhard), Beverly (Sophia Lillis), Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), Mike (Chosen Jacobs), Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Stanley (Wyatt Oleff), are all being bullied at school in there small town of Derry. They all of there own strange experiences with Pennywise and scary looking monsters, and when they finally talk about what they have been through, they decide to join forces, to tackle Pennywise, who resides in the sewers of Derry. After the strange disappearance of his little brother, Bill soon realises that Pennywise must have him, so they head towards the house, not knowing what to expect. They soon realise that there task isn't going to be as easy as they thought and some of them lost faith in the whole mission but when Beverly goes missing, they decide to face the wraith of Pennywise once more. The friendship between the kids was really sweet throughout the movie, and the way that they bonded together, under extreme circumstances, made the film a joy to watch. As I haven't watched the first IT, I don't know how this compares to the previous movie but from a stand alone point, I quite enjoyed it. The fact that all of there parents were completely useless, made there relationship that more emotional, and you can't help rooting for them when they were fighting the awful Pennywise. Anyway, I was pretty surprised with the outcome, and I can't wait to see how the characters will progress in chapter 2. Enjoyable!
Round-Up:
This movie was directed by Andy Muschietti, who also brought you Mama in 2013. For his second big budget movie in Hollywood, he must be impressed with the profit of both movies, and he has built a bankable reputation in the Horror, Thriller genre. With 8 movies in the pipeline, including It: Chapter Two in 2019, the only way is up for this up and coming director but I would like to see him tackle other genres, later on down the line. As I haven't seen any of the actors before, I can't really comment on there previous performances but the chemistry between the whole cast was top form, and well put together by the director. I just hope they don't mess up the sequel!
Budget: $35million
Worldwide Gross: $700.4million
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Cast: Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer and Wyatt Oleff. 7/10