Victim Of Overkill

Rating: 6/10 (12 September 2017)

As a huge fan of "Stand By Me", I joined the crowd of first weekend viewers of this Stephen King story, at least the first half. I was somewhat disappointed, for a number of reasons. First, like too many movies today, there is too much noise and CGI. The fact that the technology has become so advanced, should not mean that it is used more than needed. There are so many jolts and excessive morphing scenes that would be totally impossible of any creature, that it becomes more like a ride in an amusement park dark house, with ugly images and creatures trying to grab you, along with loud noises. It's not scary, really. There is nothing psychologically disturbing. Second, while it may follow the book, having about a dozen kids make it hard to clearly differentiate their identities and characteristics. There was, admittedly, some humorous moments, and many were likable, but unlike "Stand By Me", you don't get to care much for more than one or two of them. Third, too many scenes were very dark, which may make scares easier, but hard for the viewer to see. And personally, Pennywise was too advanced mechanically to be believable, and hence really scary, at least for me. I really wanted to like this film, and I didn't hate it. It just suffers from what so many genre films suffer from today: Overdoing the effects at the cost of the story and depth of the characters.