So mediocre

Rating: 6/10 (24 September 2019)

I had my hopes high for this one. The teaser with the old lady creeped the bejesus out of me and I thought it couldn't go wrong. Well it did.
First of all, the fact that they couldn't remember anything about what happened and blamed Mike for tricking them was annoying. Why did you all drop everything and ran to Derry after Mike's call if you don't remember your oath or what's at stake? Why could Stan remember everything enough to off himself? Should have kept it like the book and have them meet up for Stan's funeral who never left Derry. The dinner scene was too long, trying way too hard to be funny (something that'll happen throughout the movie) and too early for a public, shared hallucination. Didn't like the beginning at all.
Splitting the group up to find their horcruxes was an all right idea but there were no rules, no structure, no instructions and half the time I couldn't even tell if they indeed found the artifact. They went for jumpscares rather than creepiness, except the old lady. Now for the hallucinations, I have nothing against CGI, I love it, yet here I felt like those incredibly scary body proportions of the monsters were ruined by those bright CGI eyes. It made them look cute in the face. I was so ready to scream at the theatre but once I saw the faces it fell short. I really longed for good makeup and fangs. The artifact search ended up taking a whole lot of time therefore most of the movie felt like one episode after another, and no engaging pace, no team work, no adventures.
The origin story was completely butchered by showing a 30 second blurry animation that didn't look like anything. And if you're not going to explain who the circus guy was and how the actual IT took his identity, just don't bring him into the picture. One photo? Really? Spent wayyyy too much time on the item search IMHO, should have focused on the origin story more.
The bully was not used efficiently at all. Felt super forced and I still don't get how he survived a stab wound to the chest. Another character with forced screen time was the neighborhood kid. They literally put him in the movie for the sole purpose of getting Bill angry enough to attack IT alone. Just lame... Didn't feel anything for the kid tbh.
The ending was horrible. I would still like the movie if it weren't for the ending. The person who came up with this idea should never ever come up with another idea again. Bullying IT to death?? Really? So anticlimactic, so boring, so stupid, so lame... Destroyed It's scariness and power for me. And they even had the perfect idea right there! The characters literally mention it! You are as strong as the shape you choose. So they were going to trick him into the tunnel, and attack him while he was small. That was perfect! Why not use that?!
And why was IT soo incapable? Barely managed to kill one. I mean if you're gonna kill off only one character then don't kill anyone ok? It's weird.
The opening scene was AMAZING as usual. That was story telling and scaring the audience at the same time. That animalistic bite and swallow of the flesh was soo cool to watch. And like I said three times, the old lady was creeuuuhhhhpppy! Loved it.
That's about it. Could have been great.