Good scare (and some laughs), but not great

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2017)

The actor of It is fantastic--genuinely disturbing and creepy. The acting was very convincing, with some very amazing shots and scenes. The kids also were great. They provided appropriate comedic breaks in the terror, and their relationships seemed genuine and were interesting. The story was a pretty typical horror movie story, with some nice twists/differences, especially a strong minded main character. However, the movie just doesn't seem to consistently piece together these individual assets into a nice flow. The beginning of the movie gives you a barrage of haunting scenes that is too fast or too much too quick to be meaningful. I even found myself yawning in some of these scenes that were meant to be terrifying because of that! Similarly, some scenes are just too much--either way too "cartoon like", or its just trying too hard. Also, the movie sometimes, especially in the first half, felt too choppy, and it felt like there was hardly any flow, really ruining the story telling. I was going in thinking I was going to get something similar to Stranger Things (TV), but instead at times it was like a poor haphazard description by a friend who had too much caffeine. I hope the next movie will correct this and take its time more with meaningful scenes instead of trying to fit in a lot of unnecessary "scary scenes".