It was not a triumph by any means

Rating: 4/10 (16 October 2017)

Let me start my review for the new 2017 horror blockbuster by saying that I have not read the Stephen King novel or seen the old "It" from 1990, so my review for this film here has only to do with the film itself and no other version / base material. I have seen director Andy Muschietti's older film Mama and I wish he could have written the screenplay for this new film himself like he did back then as what the writing trio (that is far from a bunch of nobodies) made out of it (no pun intended) here is definitely a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. But first things first: It runs for comfortably over 2 hours and tells the story of a group of kids as they fight and eventually overcome a dangerous demon in the form of a clown. The latter goes by the name of Pennywise and maybe he was the best thing about it all. Sadly, he and the film peaked already very early on in the rain/sewer scene and that one was quite amazing. There he did look like a worthy antagonist. But honestly afterward he fails on so many occasions and cannot even kill one of the kids from the group. Lets keep it family friendly shall we? Thanks, but no thanks.
Now about the gang itself: I really never ended up liking or cheering for those kids. One reason for that may be the one with the glasses who is really downright annoying and as his comments were supposed to be the comedic foundation of the film, that is a perspective where the movie didn't work at all. And there's others. In general, the child actors weren't good at all and I would be surprised if we see more than 1, maybe 2, of them acting 20 years from now. The fat kid and the girl were maybe still the best of them, even if their fairy tale like kiss was also one of the weakest moments. The one with the glasses I cannot deny I wanted the clown to kill him, same for the one who got added for diversity reasons towards the end, who added nothing to the film at all. The boy being probably the closest to a lead actor, the one with the dead brother, was not particularly good either. This showed on several occasions, but of course the script did not help either. There is that one scene when he holds a speech that he'd rather enter the house of horrors than his home where his brother is missing was maybe the most cringeworthy moment of the film. You could see how they were desperately trying to make an impact in terms of drama, in terms of coming-of-age. But it all went wrong and not just on that occasion. There's maybe half a dozen more examples. So from the drama/emotional perspective, maybe even romantic perspective, it is a failure too. It was obvious how they wanted to make more than pointless horror fun with the several abuse (physical, emotional, sexual) stories, but the talent just wasn't there to make it work, let alone make it memorable. And at some point, it also isn't fun anymore to see Pennywise with his huge forehead being stopped again and again from killing any of the heroes as he really turned into a clueless impotent clown finally. I guess they still wanted to make it family friendly overall by not killing off any of the good kids except early on. That looked like a really cowardly approach to me. Eventually this film did not come close in its attempt to combine kids and horror, what is a successful formula these days if you look at Stranger Things" for example. I see a sequel is planned for 2019, but after how weak this one turned out to be, I cannot say I am curious about that one at all. Definitely a contender for my biggest 2017 film disappointment so far. Do not watch and I had a feeling that the mix-up between reality and imagination was handled so shoddily in here that it was just beyond confusing. Maybe even the writers lost their focus as this did not turn out half as smart as they wanted it to be. Do not be fooled by the overwhelmingly positive reception. This is not a good film!