Review of It (2017) by Kennedy K — 09 Sep 2017

CONS:

As someone who has read the book I don't wanna come off as pretentious. I understand that many are new to the story of IT, due to the 90's TV series's far-fetched adaptation. However, as someone who is a true lover of nearly all Stephen King (especially his haunting, psychological IT), I can definitely say that this movie did not hit as close to home storyline-wise as I thought it would. Seriously, you'd think after all of that 'public-announcement' crap the child actors from this movie were announcing on Twitter, claiming "this isn't a remake of the TV series, this is an original straight from the book" that I wouldn't be able to leave the theater feeling the least bit moved and more importantly, feeling like if I didn't know the storyline that they were semi-trying to portray, I would still feel somewhat sure of the true psychological horror of IT and the underlying sinister of Derry. However, this movie seemed rather choppy with it's plot and representations of what is considered "truly evil". Again, I understand that IT, as a novel, is 1,000-something pages long, but honestly, the characters were too under-developed, their fears and sights of Pennywise before banding together seemed abrupt, and rushed, and didn't make sense. Not to mention, the town itself just seemed like a plain background for this clown to simply feed and then rush off back into the sewers. In the novel, King truly gets into the real horrors of Derry, not just the clown. Henry Bowers? Yes, he was terrifying for a couple of scenes, sure, but the movie neglected to get into the reason WHY he was the way he was. I mean, yes, we get a glimpse at his father, but, even then, it seemed very last-minute and unexplained. Like, his ruthless bullying of Mike Hanlon, for example. The movie seems to jump into the fact that he obviously knows Hanlon's personal history, (with his parents burning in the room next to him) as he intercepts him from jumping down the sewage hole in the Neibolt Street house, however we never learn HOW he knows about Mike's parents, and WHY he hates them. The book gets into it as a racial prejudice, which I understandingly get why the movie didn't divulge into, however I would've appreciated an alternative storyline. Lastly, as I mentioned before, the kids were all so underdeveloped that I felt really nothing for most of them when they were under the wrath of Pennywise. Bill's character was rather boring and his lines seemed rather unfitting for the tone, Stan's character came off as more over-dramatic and annoying than anything for me (the actor was good, however the few lines that he had did not do him any justice empathy-wise).

PROS:

I must say, the acting in this movie was very well done. For the most part, each actor seemed to hit close to home with the personalities they were trying to portray based off of a seemingly Spark Notes rendition of their characters. Pennywise, I felt, was quite good. Bill Skarsgard was perfect for the role.

Now, getting on to what may be considered a con, but saved me from giving this movie a really low score? Comedy. The movie had me and my friends dying of laughter. And yeah, I'll admit Eddie and Richie were quite funny, along with the "school boy" accidental humor that the rest of the boys brought to the swimming scene and a couple others, however, Pennywise himself had me dying laughing. I mean, this isn't a scary movie, at least not to me. I mean, if you are scared of clowns, then yes, you will be terrified. But honestly, the jump scares (if even) were far beyond comical and had me in tears. Pennywise's commentary also was quite hilarious and there is a specific scene where he is dancing that had me sliding off my chair and doubling over in laughter. So, yeah. Despite the obvious lack of delivery in scare, this movie was nearly a comedy. Which made it fun to see, and, honestly, I would go see it again, as it is perfect for the theater atmosphere and emits an awestruck, slightly jumpy, laughter-filled feedback from the audience that makes you miss going to the theaters in a while.