Good, but could have been great

Rating: 7/10 (9 October 2017)

I remember seeing the trailers for IT and being a bit skeptical (as I am with most remakes or reboots), but then I later learned that rather than this movie being a remake of the miniseries of the same name from 1990, this movie was going to focus more on adapting the Stephen King book rather than remaking the miniseries. The miniseries was a mixed bag for me, the child actors were great and the first half is actually quite good (despite me not finding Tim Curry as Pennywise that scary) but the second half falls flat, scenes drag on for too long and the adult actors aren't nearly as good as the child actors in the first half and the ending was a huge letdown, but I am getting sidetracked here, this review is supposed to be about my thoughts on the 2017 film adaption of Stephen King's IT, so what did I think of IT? I enjoyed the movie quite a bit actually. The movie focuses on a group of kids that encounter a malevolent shape shifting monster from another dimension and about how they eventually come together to fight back against the creature. I want to end this review on a positive note so I am going to talk about some of the things in this film that I disliked. I understand that this movie takes place in the 1980's but I personally found it a bit obnoxious when the movie would play 80's pop or rock music over a scene (they do this several times), this annoyed me because these montage moments felt really out of place in an otherwise suspenseful and well made thriller, now I understand that this movie is trying to have comic relief to balance it out with some of the scarier scenes, but, we already have comic relief in the form of the banter between the kids in the loser's club, the dialogue between this group of friends is really funny, these characters feel like the kids from Stand By Me or South Park, so since the movie's comic relief is already supplied from them, we don't need these cringe-worthy scenes with music playing over them. There is another thing in this movie that really annoys me; do you know that stupid cliché where two characters who used to be friends get into a fight and then they separate only to reunite for the movie's climax? well that cliché in in this movie in the scene after the losers first go into the spooky house to fight Penny Wise and come out. The last complaint I have is that some of the jump scares in this movie were annoying and focused more on being loud and obnoxious than actually scary. Now, i will talk about all the things I enjoyed; like the child actors. The actors and actress that make up the Losers gang all gave outstanding performances, the chemistry between the friends really works and feels as though they were actually friends in real life, the dialogue feels natural and I especially commend the actor who played Richie and the actress who played Beverly, as they were the best out of the bunch. The actor who played Penny wise was also quite good, he doesn't just try to copy Tim Curry's Penny Wise, Bill Skarsgard gives us a Penny Wise that is much more psychotic, demonic, and scary than the Penny Wise from the miniseries, I also really like how you get to see Penny Wise shape shift and contort and change into these other different creatures. The cinematography and the pacing in this movie are also really good, there are many great looking shots in this movie and scenes never drag on for longer than they need to unlike the miniseries from 1990, I was never bored while watching this movie. There are some really well executed scares in this movie also such as the scene where Mike sees the hands of people who are burning alive and screaming for help trying to open the door in front of him and then the door slams shut, only to slam all the way open were Pennywise is visible from a distance, carrying away one of his victims, there are several other scary scenes that are very effective. Overall, i like this movie, heck, I even saw it a second time in the theater and It comes close to being a modern horror classic but there are several major flaws that the film has that hold it back from me loving it, but with that said, its still a pretty decent horror flick that I would recommend to horror fans or fans of Stephen King.