IT starts exceptionally, but IT ends typically.

Rating: 7/10 (13 September 2017)

I recall about 20 minutes into the re-boot of Stephen King's IT, thinking I'm in for a treat here. And to be fair 20 minutes later I was just as enthusiastic. These 40 minutes had showed me slick direction, suspenseful narrative, a good introduction to our new teenage heroes of Derry and of course above all a really excellent opening scene, presenting Pennywise the mysterious evil killer clown, or other wise know as IT.
Lets face it, the driving force of both the book, the original TV series and now this film is the depiction of Pennywise himself (Itself). And here Bill Skarsgard and the special effects team do a stirling job on creating a menacing and fiendish bad guy entity.
So with this in mind, should I not be giving this film a higher rating? No. Why? Well the film wasn't 40 mins long, it was over two hours. The first hour I was fully engage, the second hour my engagement waned. The scare sequences became more tedious, more CGI was replacing dread. And to be frank the actual story never causes much drama, and to be fair doesn't really make sense.
Why does Pennywise kill all other children and teenagers at will, but just appears to muck about with the main cast? (he kills adults in the chapter 2) IT could surly kill them at any time, but instead IT lets them team up on him and all of a sudden he is powerless, and defeated far to easily. You never really feel any of these kids are actually in any danger from IT, it has that kinda of comic book feel, which dislodges the tension. Look appreciate that this is how the book was written, so can't entirely blame the film for that.
The performances from the teenage cast are good here. Most notably would be Sophia Lillis who plays the rouge 'teenage girl with domestic issues', Beverly Marsh. A clear talent with great screen presence, but her character is most notable because she gets a lot more backstory than the others, and her characters journey gets shoved in your face to be honest. Due to this some of the other lads in the group end up getting overlooked and therefore unbalances the group dynamics.
This is still a decent film, with a lot of positives. Well made, with an intriguing Killer clown at it's centre. Certainly worth checking out.