Lost in Translation

Rating: 3/10 (28 October 2017)

I had been anticipating this movie for a while. Although flawed, as most Steven King adaptations are, the first IT (1990) was headed in the right direction. I remember thinking, with a bit of work that could have been one of the great adaptions and when I heard they were re-doing it, I was very hopeful.
Sadly, it really is worse, despite the age of the first one, it kind of worked in that time period. And that is the start of the problem I had. I had to keep reminding myself that it was set in the 1980s as there was no obvious tie in. Music, TV Ads, fashion etc. And when one of the lead characters cycles on an old Schwinn, that threw me a little. I did note this was probably a nod to Steven King who includes a Schwinn in just about every one of his early stories. And the sloppy production and continuity(yes I did notice late brand products at the chemist) didn't help.
There were too many characters and at times I was probably watching the wrong one which meant I couldn't flow with the story. It seemed like, to get the right bunch of 'losers' together they tried to cover every eventuality - stutter, asthmatic, sick kid, nerd, black kid and a girl to finish it off. The Goonies spring to mind. The characters were mismatched and there age indeterminate. At times they seemed to act like prepubescent children on a summer adventure, and their reaction to various scenarios was difficult to relate to. When they all start yelling at each other that they need to get out, wouldn't you run? They didn't. More than once too. The girl was just wrong. Pretty, more mature than the rest and managed a great hair cut with scissors in a moment of anger. And far too wordy for kids of this age and era. Long speeches that were done at the most inappropriate times with language that instantly sounded unnatural. And where were their parents? The protagonist group were typical. Three men, one a sadistic leader with an abusive father and the other two were dumb red neck lackeys. It was off putting to go from what appeared to be a goonies adventure to the uncomfortable father daughter scene. Again, who was it aimed at? I won't go into plot holes, that's been adequately covered by reviewers elsewhere, and there are plenty of plot holes.
On a good note, Pennywise was well played by Mr Skaarsguard. I didn't mind the over use of CGI, it was mostly handled well.
It just felt like it was trying too hard. The novel is long and very very descriptive but not everything needs to be included. There's two ways they could have approached this which would have made it a lot better. Turned it into a 3 part Movie series and developed the characters, time line and mood better. Or, tighten it up with less characters (with less issues that aren't relevant), tighter production values, trimmed story line and not such a drawn out ending.
I gave it a 3 ... pity really