IT (2017) based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King and directed by Andy Muschietti and stars Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer and Wyatt Oleff as the Losers Club. Bill Skarsgård stars as Pennywise and Nicholas Hamilton is Henry Bowers.
I recently done a Movie Review for IT on my YouTube channel and gave it a great review. I feel I can break down certain elements into words a lot easier than on camera, so here goes!
Firstly, let's talk about the losers. Each and every member gave their all in this movie. Out of the seven losers, I would say we got some good backstory to most of them and a lot of screen time with a few of them, in particular Beverly Marsh. Beverly seemed to be dealing with much bigger problems at home and Pennywise seemed to be a secondary issue for her. This was probably the reason she was not afraid of him. Ritchie was the only character that didn't get a personal scare from Pennywise before the gang got together to discuss what they were going to do. That was slightly disappointing but I can see why they left it out. With a 135 minute runtime, they had to be careful. We did get a lot of potty mouth jokes from Ritchie so we can let that slide.
I loved how the director gave us a glimpse of what life was like through the eyes of most of the losers. It gave us a better understanding what their fears were without having to spoon feed the audience. This made their fears more frightening when Pennywise showed up to test them.
I liked how the scares in this movie were no forced and in fact, I imagine they were pretty hard to achieve due to the fact that most of the scares took place in broad daylight. The director had to be extra creative when showing this menacing character on screen as there was daylight all around. This takes us onto Pennwise. Bill Skarsgard done a tremendous job as Pennywise, the dancing clown. Even though there were some scenes were Pennywise had to act silly, it didn't come off silly or cheesy in any way. In fact, those scenes were pretty unsettling to say the least. Straight from the beginning, we knew that this version of Pennywise was going to be scary. I don't remember the last time we seen a child being killed on screen. They didn't just do this (twice) but the way they did it, done the book justice (morbidly). The books description of the way Georgie met his demise was very haunting and the movie is no different. The way that boy lost his arm, and the sheer terror in his voice sent trembles down my spine! And this was only 10 minutes into the movie.
Another scene involving a kid being killed was near the end and it involved Georgie (again). I guess they got away with it more because this Georgie wasn't really Georgie. Bill puts the 'gun' to Georgie's head and he pulls that trigger.
The bullies in the movie were good overall. We see a bit more backstory to Henry which I liked. It wasn't a full hour of backstory but only 2 minutes split over 2 scenes. This was enough to find out why Henry acts the way he does. We are introduced to Patrick Hockstetter too which was a nice surprise since the mini-series left him out. Even though we don't delve into Patrick's character, he has enough screen time to do him justice. I'd say the bullies were overall, decent.
Now as most of you are aware, the movie set in the late 80's. This was a little disappointing on paper to me as I love movies set in the 50's. Although I still don't know why they changed it, I still loved it. The nods to New Kids on the Block were a welcome comic relief as I prepared myself for more terror. I can only assume there is an even bigger reason for setting it in the 80's, such as having the sequel set in 2016 (27 years later).
As always, I have to rate this movie as fairly as I can and not go all 'fan-boy' on the score. Having read most of the book and comparing it to the mini series, I can't help but think that the movie was perfect. A full movie devoted to just the kids was genius and exactly what I would have done as a director. I can't think of one part of the movie I would change or remove. Pennywise was a step up, the bullies were a step up and the losers were incredible. This all being compare to the mini series.
I give IT 5/5 Nards!
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