Overrated? A bit. Good? Maybe.

Rating: 6/10 (8 September 2017)

I went into 2017's It with decently high expectations. I haven't read the original door-stopping 1000+ page novel that it's based on, but I did watch the incredibly silly TV mini- series. And while I ultimately came out disappointed, the film wasn't without its high points.
The film takes place in the fictional town of Derry (in Maine, of course. Can't be a Stephen King story without a mention of Maine) in the late 80's (as opposed to the 50's, which is when the original book and the mini-series takes place), where a mysterious, evil force simply referred to as "It", who takes on the form of a clown named Pennywise, appears every thirty years to feast on the fears of children. A group of misfit kids known as The Losers Club then must band together to take down the evil creature, all the while battling the evil forms the monster assumes.
First, the positives: the child actors in this film do a fantastic job. They all have chemistry with one another and deliver their lines convincingly. Some of them may be a little one-dimensional, but they're all still really likable. The final battle with It feels triumphant because we've come to like these kids, which is always something a film should do. The forms It takes are bursting with creativity, even if the scenes they're placed in vary in spookiness. Pennywise himself is also pretty great, with Bill Skarsgård being able to almost match Tim Curry's intimidating (but also silly) performance in the original mini series.
That said, this movie also has a lot going against it. This is one of the most tonally inconsistent films I've seen in a while, with scenes shifting from "80's music montage" to "spooky predictable scares" within a matter of seconds, and it doesn't feel like an artistic choice. It feels like the producers wanted to shove in as many scares as possible, whether they fit in the scene or not, and it ultimately results in none of them standing out too much. As cheesy as the original mini-series was, it knew when and when not to attempt to scare the audience; as opposed to the 2017 movie where it feels like it's throwing something at you every five minutes.
The bully characters, like in the original mini-series and a lot of other Stephen King stories, are extremely one-dimensional and unnaturally cruel (except for at least two bullies in the movie who may actually have restraint). The movie tries to give the main bully a little bit of explanation for his behavior, and it makes some of his mannerisms make sense, but in the end he's just another Stephen King bully.
There are also points where it's kinda hard to tell if the movie's trying to be intentionally or unintentionally funny. Richie's dialogue, while endearing, I didn't find that funny. Meanwhile, in almost every one of It's encounters with the kids, he does something that may or may not have been intentionally funny. Not to spoil anything, but there's a scene in the climax where he lives up to his "The Dancing Clown" subtitle and I'm not sure whether it was supposed to be funny, spooky, or both.
In the end: 2017's adaptation of Stephen King's It is a mixed bag. Its scares are predictable, occasionally unintentionally funny, and far too plentiful, but the monster designs are creative. The child actors do an excellent job and their characters are super likable, but the side characters suffer from Stephen King stereotypes. The film's climax is incredibly triumphant, but it doesn't save the film as a whole. However, despite the film's numerous flaws, I didn't regret seeing it.
Six blood-filled balloons out of ten.