IT (2017)

Rating: 8/10 (16 September 2017)

Going into this film with previous expectations of the book and original television mini-series this certainly had a bar to reach. Whilst few of the cons can be considered major, the pros are incredibly overpowering and the cons will soon be deemed irrelevant.
CONS -
The CGI is the most obvious con, in some scenes Bill Skarsgard is completely rendered and any terror that he had in previous scenes has been thrown out of the window. He didn't need to have any special effects in my opinion and would've been more effective if Skarsgard's performance was the main focus.
Some of the dodgy CGI also makes some of the children's fears completely non frightening as well as the fact the camera lingers on them for way too long. Subtle cinematography would've been much more effective here.
The ending also had me quite conflicted, whilst the idea of bashing Pennywise was fun in the moment, I felt the filmmakers led the audience away from the whole idea of "sticking together" and just had the children completely kick the shi* out of Pennywise, which was alright but more emphasis on the themes would've been nice.
PROS -
The opening is absolutely brilliant (if only it wasn't for that CGI face)
The performances are fuc*ing brilliant. Standouts being all The Loser's Club. Jaeden Lieberher is fantastic as our main whilst Jeremy Ray Taylor brings such heart to his role. Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard and Jack Dylan Grazer are also completely believable and were among my favourites. Chosen Jacobs also brought an amazingly mature performance although he was vastly underused in my opinion. Wyatt Oleff drew the short straw for me and was overshadowed by his peers. Stephen Boagert and Nicholas Hamilton brought great supporting characters to life.
Bill Skarsgard is brilliant when his face isn't being butchered by dodgy CGI, his voice and dribbling were genuinely creepy. The one use of good special effects was that fridge scene. Easily his most terrifying scene is when he creeps up on Bev, I will admit that I jumped.
Atmosphere was great as was the cinematography. Andy Muschietti and the rest of his team should be brought back for the sequel!
This film does bring a beautiful coming of age story to life more then a fully fledged horror, the children are absolutely brilliant and there is a lot of heart within this. The references are amazing as is the humour. There are some amazing little scenes that play out very nicely that I will leave you to experience for yourself.
Overall this film does lack the scares but has plenty of heart and incredible performances across the board to keep your interest. Props to Bill Skarsgard for his performances which brilliantly challenges Tim Curry's but the children should be given the highest of praise due to their mature, emotional, humorous and above all heartfelt performances. I'm already planning a fan cast for Part Two!