Does a much better job at the suspense and characters

Rating: 9/10 (5 October 2017)

When reviewing this film, it is almost impossible to ignore the older TV movie that came before it. While I greatly enjoyed Tim Curry's portrayal of the killer clown, the TV movie hasn't endured the test of time well. The TV movie was not without its flaws; most notably in the special effects, acting and the actual horror. So it is great to see another director have a go at translating the source material to the screen. Personally I feel that whenever a movie is remade, something new has to be added, or something needs to be improved over the original. I am happy to say that this is definitely the case with this remake.
The 2017 version of It immediately distances itself from the TV movie, by being a lot more violent regarding how Georgie dies. It mostly follows the same beats as the TV movie, but I feel it is more successful in fleshing out the characters (especially the children) and in setting the stakes. It is also a lot more suspenseful, and manages to more effectively communicate the effects that "It" has on the town itself, and not just on the children.
It has quite a lot of jump scares, but several are really well done. I was fortunate enough to view this movie with an audience that was susceptible to It's scares, which always makes a horror movie a lot more enjoyable to watch. It is great to see the entire audience jump and scream simultaneously, and be thoroughly invested in the movie.
That said, I do feel that Tim Curry was a better clown. Curry's performance was more nuanced and realistic, like an actual adult that preys on innocent children. Whereas in this new rendition, the clown is perhaps the least frightening thing in the movie. Curry felt more like an actual threat, whereas the clown in this version mostly just flails his arms a lot, while running at the children, and not doing much else. This undermines the suspense a bit, because it feels like the clown is holding its punches throughout the movie. And the final confrontation with the clown made the clown even less threatening. I'm also not a fan of the clown's new design. It now looks like an obvious scary clown, that is trying too hard to be scary. While Curry's clown looked like a regular clown at first glance, which I ultimately find a lot more scary.
But in other areas I was pleasantly surprised with the visual design. The sets are gorgeous and convincing, the clown's transformations do look creepy, and benefit a lot from modern visual effects. I also love that we got a whole different take on It's deadlights (although not called out as such during the film).
But the story has two parts of course. And so it remains to be seen if the second movie will be just as good. With the TV movie, when it came to the part with the adults, the acting was pretty terrible. And the ending was greatly undermined by the limited effects of that time. That part is left for a sequel with the 2017 version, which I think is a good choice. It will leave them more time to flesh out the adults, and build a more coherent ending to a story that truth be told is all over the place. But will they be able to get us just as invested in the stuff with the adults, as they did with the children? I guess we'll have to wait and see when the second movie comes out.