It 2017 Review – Severly Lacking the “IT” Factor

Review of It the Movie 2017. This review may contain spoilers.

I’ve been holding out on writing this review after first seeing IT, to see if I still felt the same way after having some time to dwell on it. Judging by the 192 million views of the trailer within 24 hours of its launch, we can deduce that this was a heavily anticipated movie, especially amongst the Stephen King fans or “Constant Readers.” I will take this time to note that I am one of them. Of course, this does not mean that my views in any way reflect what other King fans may or may not think.

IT follows the story of 7 tween-agers who take it upon themselves to tackle an evil clown/ being disguised as a clown who is going on a killing spree in the fictional town of Derry, Maine. The story is based on the novel of the same name by American author, Stephen King.
Back to the point.

The Georgie Scene

Opening Scene: “The Georgie Scene,” as its often called, was done to perfection and totally set the mood for an amazing movie. The music, the colouring, the entire feel of the scene was perfect. It was a great way to kick-start an epic like “IT.” As a fan of the book and the 1990 mini-series, I was sold after that scene.

Stephen King's IT 2017 Movie Review

Moving on, the rest of the movie dragged for nearly 3 hours, with a combination of kids’ jokes and a clown that was really not scary at all. IT movie totally abused its M18 rating. If it weren’t for two “gory” scenes, it likely could have been rated PG13 and save us all the excitement of actually thinking we were watching a movie for grown-ups. (I was going to say “adult movie” but that sounded wrong. :/) I probably could have taken my son to see it.

The Losers Club

While I am fully aware that a movie cannot possibly follow a book accurately in terms of story, it can certainly capture the mood if done correctly. If I had to summarize the feeling of IT the novel in a sentence, (okay fine, two sentences) it would be this:

Magic is real. (as taken from the preface of the novel,) and

I believe in Fairy Tales, not because they tell us that dragons exist – but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. – Neil Gaiman

The movie had no feeling of magic. It did not capture the darkness and fear that IT is, or the true terror that it brought on Derry. It did not capture the ultimate battle of good vs evil. A demonic child-eating clown vs a group of kids? C’mon. If that’s not good vs evil, I just don’t know what is. Again, this was not portrayed well in the movie at all. Not to mention that the ending was dumb. Yes, even worse than the spider (see “IT 1990”.)

This movie had huge shoes to fill. No, it’s not about special effects. IT 2017 followed a book that made me cry and a miniseries that gave me nightmares (yes I know, the mini series isn’t that good, but it was good for its time!! Haha). IT 2017 aroused no emotions whatsoever, zero.

I hear from some people that the director is “saving the good stuff for Chapter 2.” I sure hope so.

FINAL REVIEW: 5/10

The 5 was for the good 5 minutes in the first scene. It was that good. The rest of the movie gets no stars.

Distributor: Warner Bros Pictures
Production Company: Newline Cinema, Ratpac-Dune Entertainment, Vertigo Entertainment, Lin Pictures, KatzSmith Productions
Director: Andy Muschietti
Cast: Jaeden Lieberher, Bill Skarsgard, Finn Wolfhard, Sofia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor,
Producers: Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Seth Grahame-Smith, Daved Katzenberg, Barbara Muschietti
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch

M18, 135 Minutes