"It" Movie Review

IT is a novel written by Stephen King in 1986 about an evil supernatural clown named Pennywise who torments children by scaring them and taking them away. A group of kids stand up to the clown, hurting Pennywise and making him retreat until years later he returns causing a final show down with the now grown group of kids. This story left a generation terrified of clowns. The novel had a spin off tv mini-series of the story which was well received in its time. today looking back the mini-series it is somewhat dated and goofy than it was meant to be. Tim curry playing Pennywise the Dancing clown was an eerie over the top character and sometime the line from scary into cheesy and goofy would be crossed. The realness of the first one however can be felt. The props and characters are not CG and makes the movie seem more grounded in “reality”.

I attended the September 7th 2017 opening day of IT. I was hyped too. I read the book, re-watched the mini-series and was excited to see the reimagined of the story. I had fun watching the movie some continuity issues did catch my eyes but I could let it go in the moment. So, what was my overall thought was this remake was scarier BUT not as entertaining as the mini-series. Then I saw the movie again. The remake has a new take it is darker, more direction with the young actors, and a more relevant plotline. I did find this version of Pennywise more intimidating but when the CGI mouth was used or other needless CG effects used to make it look fake. The lack of consistency was bothersome for me. Sometimes a prop would be in one shot and not the next, only to reappear in the next shot. The movie also felt like it did not know what it wanted to be at times. Their editing choices were at times questionable. When the group confronts their bullies, there is a fight and one shot was a slow Mo of the bully yelling at a character. That’s it we never see that slow Mo again just one strange shot in a whole movie threw me off. Some things are shown and then never mentioned again or have big build ups to some big event and then nothing happens. Watching the second time I was kind of bored and was just waiting for the more light-hearted moments. If a good scary movie to you consists of jump scares then this will be a good choice.

After the movie I interviewed a couple of people in the audience. A 21-year-old boy named Jordan from Ewa claimed he had read the book and seen the mini-series and claimed this was a bit of a letdown. “I know everyone sighs when I say the book is better but, like it did not depend on jump scares and the mini-series not so much to my knowledge. “

I also interviewed a 20-year-old named Noah from windward side who had never read the book or seen the mini-series. “It was okay. A lot of plot holes but I hear it gonna be explained in second movie. It ain’t scary I was laughen the whole time almost. It was just big because of the hype around the clowns from last year and it has nostalgia to it.”

Like I said I enjoyed the new cast and the atmosphere a lot better but, the story seemed to drag on and it was not as entertaining. Would I see it again? Sure, if someone else was paying.