About as Good as I Expected IT to be...

Rating: 6/10 (7 January 2018)

I'll start by saying that I'm an avid horror fan and it takes quite a lot for me to truly dislike a scary movie. I'm an easy person to scare and even the dumbest movies can usually get me to jump if they are aiming to do so. Also, horror is probably the easiest genre for film makers to screw up - which they do more often than not. There are very few "great" horror movies that have been released over the past 10 years so my expectations are never very high when I go in to see any horror movie. The ones that are overly hyped with huge budgets are usually the worst. Pair that with the fact that this movie is a remake.. Ingredients for disaster. Examples of these failures would be films such as: Poltergeist, Rob Zombies Halloween (both disasters but particularly the sequel), A Nightmare on Elm St, Carrie, Evil Dead.. I could go on and on. So I already predicted that it would bomb even though I had never seen the trailer and had no idea who the cast would be (except for Bill Skarsgard from an article I read) before walking into the movie theater.
With all of that in mind, the movie was actually not as terrible as I thought it would be. It was still far from great.. but IT had its moments and I found myself to be fairly entertained throughout the whole thing. I'll be honest, it took me two tries to actually watch the whole movie.
If you're a huge fan of the book (I've never read it) then you will probably hate this because it does skip out on a ton of details and you don't get nearly as much backstory as you do in the original miniseries. I've actually heard that the book is really bizarre with a ridiculous amount of twists and turns that make no sense and give nothing to the story. Many people describe the book as too silly and that making a movie directly from it would be impossible because of all the weird details (turtles, gang-bangs and Paul Bunyan statues coming to life according to one reviewer lol). So I'm happy I have no book to compare this to.
***SPOILERS***
The first scene in the movie plays out really well. I was creeped out by Pennywise during his conversation with Georgie and the first two kids that were introduced (Georgie & Bill) were adorable and had great chemistry together. Then all of the sudden Pennywise turned into this insanely terrible CGI monster who looked like Megan Fox from "Jennifers Body" on steroids and I couldn't watch another second of it.
I watched it again because I wanted to see if the movie had any redeeming qualities and thought it deserved a fair chance. I'm not sad I watched it but what is the deal with all the CGI? It completely ruined the movie for me. Pennywise already looked like a cartoon character to begin with and all of the unnecessary special effects just made him even less scary. Bill Skarsgard did an alright job playing him and had a few really great creepy moments, but all in all Pennywise was a letdown.
I know the miniseries is well loved by a lot of people and I can respect that, but I personally think the original was pretty ridiculous and I like the updated vibe this version gives. They changed the decade from the 1950's to the 1980's and thank god for that because the 50s were dull. Many people are upset about this and say they changed it to cater to the "Stranger Things" crowd and they're probably right. I love Stranger Things and I think the writers made a good choice.
The cast of kids were mostly great and I loved the comedy that was happening between them. Sofia Lillis, who plays Beverly, did a good job but I thought she looked too old for her age in the film. I liked Chosen Jacobs but the writers did a terrible job with Mike Hanlons character. They made him seem like an afterthought and his backstory was weird and out of left field. Jaeden Lieberher and Jeremy Ray Taylor were both PERFECT casting choices for their roles as Bill & Ben I thought the portrayal of Henry Bowers was also pretty spot on. The stand out's for me for sure though are Finn Wolfhard (Richie) & Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie). I thought they were both hilarious and their scenes were my favorites in the movie.
All in all, the movie is a decent watch but it's not winning any awards.