That's.... it?

Rating: 6/10 (29 November 2017)

What an eye-roller.... I'll be honest, the cinematography was solid. Effective... special effects, imaginative... CGI, compared to many modern horrors - this isn't a wasted effort. But the writing... I admit, I have no idea of the original, I can't compare it either to the novel or the series. But the characters are so unclear that you just roll your eyes every other scene.
The elephant in the room: Why even include the fat kid in the first place? Okay, there are a few secondaries with little personality, that asthma kid, the jew, the black one - they are filler, I am surprised none of them died.
And the fat kid? The movie begins by suggesting an... out of nowhere romance, literally. Right, as if a gorgeous girl, even if she is trashed, would just approach and be so nice. Golfclap. What do we see next of this kid? He takes pretty much the worst treatment of all the guys(and one of them gets his arm broken). Yet what does he do? He fights back, he shows no fear. He actually looks like a diamond in the rough, a hidden protagonist. He studies the town, he plays an important role for the plot. He even saves that token girl in the most fairy-tale way imaginable in the end.
But somewhere in the middle of the plot - suddenly this... this... Harry Potter, for the lack of a better description, rises. Maddeningly driven to find his god-forsaken brother, devoid of all fear, a pure knight in shining armor. White, handsome, slender and brave. It really can't get any dumber. And when everything looks bad, who are the only people to be "brave"? Of course, he. No zit. And the girl, because.... reasons. She is apparently also super hot, super kind, super open-minded and super brave. Just an ideal persona. Yet... the fat kid is swept under the rug. Along with all the other fillers.
As far as we are concerned, the boys are grounded and hate each other. The four-eyed comedian hates both Harry Potter and his girl, yet when the damsel gets in distress, as per the norm - he immediately goes to the rescue. And so does the jew and the black guy. No questions asked, they've got nothing better to do. Even the asthma kid, who clearly got screwed by that girl, who told him that the meds are fake - blows it out on his mother and joins the rest. Just like that.
Throw in a couple of "Full Metal Jacket" scenes and we are approaching the finale. During which - the Harry Potter promises to the jew that "if they stick together, they will be alright". One really eye-rolling scene later, we see the jew get lost. Just like that. And, when his face is clearly getting eaten, instead of some proper gore(and, for what it's worth, by that point that movie has shown patricide twice, so it can't get any worse), he is left out with mere bites. Guess jews really aren't tasty.
In the end, the Harry Potter clearly skips the girl for his bloody brother, while, as I said, the fat kid saves her. But... after a few really stupid exchanges, Harry Potter takes the lead again and... yeah, everyone leaves and he pretty much shares the final solid kiss with his future squeeze.
It feels like the movie TRIED to establish the characters, to develop something non-linear. But it utterly failed and turned out as every generic flick ever. And here I thought Frozen had a ridiculous turnabout...
The most unnecessary character was the black kid. Why... was he there? Token Black from South Park? Or he was in the originals too? I'm not talking about color here, I'm saying that he both had the color and the lack of any development whatsoever. And pretty much so was the jew. Well, he "had" some extra scenes here and there, but he seemed like an annoying donkey of the bunch. The asthma kid and the four-eye? A couple of sidekicks, who can't decide which ball to rub. On one hand, they are actual sidekicks, on the other - they are just as useless. And, of course, the aforementioned fat kid, who got written off, but at least had plenty of character development. Come to think of it, the main duo had less character than even the fat kid.
So it should be pretty clear why this plot feels so... weird. Eye-rolling.
If they wanted to build a relationship - they should build it. If they want Harry Potter to find his brother - focus on that. Remove one or two unnecessary characters and invest more in the others, there are plenty to go. Explore more about the girl, more about Pennywise. I've almost thought it would be revealed that he is "some freddy krueger, who got killed by the town and now he hunts it", but no. He just goes Sadako back into the well. Haven't seen that one before...
I can't say that this is a bad film... all in all, it COULD get worse and stupider. But it really can't deserve any more than 6/10. Not with that plot. And it's sad, if it was well-written, it could easily be a modern horror benchmark at 8-9/10.