Interesting visuals, poorly constructed

Rating: 4/10 (9 September 2017)

The film's a tremendous disappointment--especially given the hype. "It" is chaotic and unfocused. Mind you, there are some moments that feature truly spectacular visuals, and the film wants to have heart, but it's never scary and the narrative is--at best --picaresque. What's the mystery of Pennywise? The movie doesn't care. Why is Ben being sought out for special attention by town bully Henry Bowers? Forget about it. As a result, there's no real sense of drama, and some of the adult characters are so terribly stereotypical that any scene with a grown-up in it is difficult to watch. I'm crushed. i really hoped that this film would do for horror what Avengers did for Superheroes. That is, I hoped it would signal the start of something really epic. Instead, it felt like flipping through a bunch of movie channels on Oct 31. Sure, you see some scary images, but you just can't seem to care that much about them.