IT's okay (haha, me so funny)

Rating: 6/10 (12 May 2020)

It tells a story of a group of kids in Maine, terrorized by a clown because, when has a clown not terrorized kids. It starts with a kid, Bill, whose little brother Georgie decides to go out in the rain to race a paper boat. The boat flows into a gutter, and as Georgie tries to retrieve it, we get our first glimpse of It in the gutter. After a little playful banter, It grabs Georgie, rips off his arm, then drags him into the gutter. Fun stuff.
Bill has a group of friends, guy from Stranger Things, Jewish guy, preppy guy. They're taunted by a group of bigger kids led by Keifer Sutherland (wait, that's Stand by me). It's the last day of summer, and they decide what better way to celebrate than to continue to search for Bill's missing little brother. Along the way, the befriend fat friendless guy, girl, and token black guy.
This group all have something in common in that they've all had run ins with It. They decide, as kids do when someone is terrorizing them, to investigate and try to kill this supernatural monster. Along the way, scary stuff happens until such point that enough scary stuff happens to fill the ~2 hours and things have to end.
Oh, and there's a chapter 2 (read: sequel) when they grow up. Yeah, apparently It feeds on kids for a year, then rests for 27 years. But, you know, otherwise the town's great!
Really, it's not that bad. I'm just having a little fun. For what it is, it's actually entertaining. The kids have great chemistry, Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd is great as Pennywise, there are some nice scary scenes, but not so scary as to be a full on horror movie.
I think my issue is that, for all the power Pennywise has, it just seems like he/it is just stringing them along until such time the movie makes its 2 hours, at such time the fun stops. Yeah, there's something about kids not being fearful and that's why they were able to fight back. There's also something about them banding together. So yeah, being together and not being afraid. But throughout the movie, Pennywise had ample time to divide and conquer, like the myriad kids before. But for some reason he decides not to do that for these kids. Why? Maybe I missed it? Maybe it's in the book? Maybe it's covered in Chapter 2? Maybe it's in the Tim Curry TV version? Dunno.
I will watch It Chapter 2. I enjoyed this movie enough to see how it resolves when the kids grow up. The movie started strong enough, but again, just seemed to meander until the climax. 6/10 decent popcorn flick, I guess.