A good adaptation and a great remake

Rating: 8/10 (7 September 2017)

This movie does a nice job of adapting the original material into a story that can be told in two hours. The structure of the original novel is lovely but if they were to follow the books events exactly this movie would have been very long.
They manage to tell the story of the losers coming together in a way that feels natural and isn't rushed. They change the events enough to keep things fresh and keep the story moving along but they keep enough of the original events in to keep the fans of the book pleased. A lot of the stuff in the film has to do with Derry's interesting past and how the monster has control over the town and it's people. You really get a feeling of something larger being at work, roots wriggling beneath the surface.
The portrayal of the clown was very interesting and creepy. Think Dark Knight's Joker. Nobody could have expected Heath Ledger to act the way he did in that film, and the same rings true for Skarsgard in this movie. The acting is very well done. His voice will linger in your head. He sounds like a monster trying to mimic human speech, it's very unnerving. His movement is also very wrong. Human beings don't move like that. But monsters trying to act like human beings do.
The scares in the movie felt like ones that would be in a Stephen King novel. Scares that unnerve you and get under your skin.Things that make you think about how terrifying it would be if you were there experiencing them.
The kids were great. Stand outs include Richie Tozier and Eddie Kasprak. Mike Hanlon and Henry Bowers were also well done. The only qualm I have is with Beverly. The actress just doesn't look very young. She looks and acts too much like a woman and it makes her performance very unbelievable, she looks like an actor playing a role.
After all is said and done, this was a nice adaptation and a great remake. With all the cash-grab remakes coming out these days it's nice to see a movie that obviously has some love for the source material. I would recommend seeing this one in theaters. Audience reaction and screen size along with sound quality really make this a fun theater movie. 8/10