I hate to say it, I was disappointed.

Rating: 5/10 (28 September 2017)

I want to clarify that I do believe IT (2017) is a good film, it just failed to meet my expectations. I also want to clarify that I avoid comparing the film to the book, but rather the original 1990 release, because we all know the book is always going to come out on top.
IT (1990) is one of my favourite films. Naturally, when I heard the remake had released to a positive reception, I was extremely excited to see it. I had a glance at the IMDb page, noticed it ran for 2h 15mins and became even more excited, the original (kid half) was 1h 30mins, imagine how much depth this new version can have! Sadly, I was very wrong. The original (in less time) fleshed out these characters far more. I got to know each kid, what they were afraid of, watch their bond strengthen, and then together, how they managed to overcome their greatest fears. I just didn't feel that in this new film, I didn't feel like these kids had an unbreakable bond. Removing the scenes of the kids building a dam was a big mistake, it was here that we saw the kids bonding, coming together to overcome this challenge (before facing the real one, IT). It's actually a real shame, because it appears that these kids had some real acting skills, on average they were far superior to the original kids (minus Jonathan Brandis, he is in a league of his own).
Then onto IT himself, it just didn't work for me. Where was the tension? Where was the atmosphere? Bill Skarsgård did a far better job than I expected, it's not his fault that IT (2017) just wasn't as scary/creepy as the original, but he actually has far too much screen time, far too much physical presence. The best way to sum this up is the ending scene, where the kids literally beat the crap out of IT. In the original film, they don't even physically take him on, IT tries to mentally break them down one by one, only through the kids extremely strong bond are they able to withstand his psychological attacks. Even Bill manages to fight off Georgie's illusion by himself in the new movie, where is the emphasis on the power of their friendship? I was waiting for the gang to jump in and help Bill, help him understand it's not real, turns out he didn't even need them. I can't even believe these kids will be afraid of IT returning, they'll be twice the size, twice the beat-down for IT.