It
A group of bullied kids band together when a shapeshifting monster, taking the appearance of a clown, begins hunting children.
Cast
Bill Skarsgård – It / Pennywise the Dancing Clown
Jaeden Lieberher – William “Bill” Denbrough
Wyatt Oleff – Stanley “Stan” Uris
Jeremy Ray Taylor – Benjamin “Ben” Hanscom
Sophia Lillis – Beverly “Bev” Marsh
Finn Wolfhard – Richard “Richie” Tozier
Jack Dylan Grazer – Edward “Eddie” Kaspbrak
Chosen Jacobs – Michael “Mike” Hanlon
Nicholas Hamilton – Henry Bowers
(sh) It
What an utter disappointment. I gave this one a go whilst pushing the original movie to the back of my mind, starting afresh. I tried to see this from a different perspective. A new horror flick based on the famous Stephen King book. Let’s give this one a shot..
..I was totally underwhelmed, and hands down preferred the 1990 original. This re-imagining was just awful in almost every aspect. The new version of the titular enemy was simply – bizarre. Whereas Tim Curry had a deliciously evil air about him which stemmed from a personality both terrifying and funny at the same time, this clown came across more like a scatty cartoon character. Skarsgård’s portrayal was a goofy weirdo who seemed more stupid than scary; his puerile way of holding conversation with the other characters and dribbling whilst doing so dampened the clown’s threat and lowered the fear factor of Pennywise massively.
This version of the menacing clown was shockingly crap; I genuinely found him funny at certain points – the wrong reaction. Not what I wanted. This guy should’ve been scary, what the hell was going on here?
As far as I am aware, this version of It sticks more to the book. It follows King’s novel and remains true to the original written feature, which would explain the fluidity of its scenes. Differing from the previous movie, this one seems to jump from child to child constantly for a good chunk of its running time. And it’s tedious.
Over to the chubby guy – freak him out.
Back to the geeky guy – scare him also.
Over to the female – scare the shit out of her.
Back to the lead guy – do something strange to him.
The scenes bounce back and forth as though the director ran out of gusto and took the easiest route to the finale, true to the book or not. I however, couldn’t wait for the finale to arrive. This movie was fast becoming a tedious disappointment and its lack of scares only contributed to its spectacular nosedive towards the studio floor.
I hoped. I begged. For something to change..
The final scene involving the group of young friends and Pennywise as they fight to defeat him is very badly put together. A prime example is when a deadly serious showdown takes place between the beast and the kids; a terrifyingly tense moment suddenly loses its impact when one of the characters drops a ‘hilarious-on-set, not-hilarious-on-screen’ one-liner. This scene loses itself here and any tension built up is instantly dashed, the combination of horror-funny just doesn’t work. At least with the original movie such moments played out until the end with a lingering air of dread. This version seems proud to remain true to the book, but buggers it up whilst doing so. It’s just not as great as the producers want it to be, and the golden question remains solid throughout:
WHY have they re-done this movie?
What Went Right
Praise to Finn Wolfhard who plays young Richie. The kid is just superb on a comic level, dropping some very funny lines and ensuring lighter moments are as solid as they possibly can be. A good percentage of the cinema audience reacted to Richie with laugh-out-loud joy during It. Great stuff.
Although jumps and scares are not as frequent as they should be, there are one or two moments that should make most viewers flinch. The ‘clown room’ scene is an example; not only is the atmosphere put on edge with gangs of clown dolls and the potential for some of then to spring to life, but Pennywise bursts on to the screen in a way that even I almost shit myself from – and I can sit through Paranormal Activity comfortably.
I’ll be blunt – this movie is complete (sh)it. It doesn’t match the uniqueness of its predecessor in any way. However, the producers have been clever releasing it now because some movies these days are followed by sequel after sequel – meaning It could follow King’s book exactly if done right.
This movie entertains in places so if you find yourself with nothing to do one evening give it a go, just don’t expect too much. More funny than scary, this has to be one of the worst sequels I have ever seen.
Oh, and see if you can spot the original Pennywise (Tim Curry’s version) during a particular scene..
Ricky's Film Reviews 