IT - Review

Release Date: September 8, 2017

Is IT Scary? 

​IT is a property that had a following way before this movie was thought of. Not only was there a television series but the famous book from Stephen King still has much fanfare today. This IT movie is only the latest incarnation of that really twisted story.

Let's get the bad out of the way which happens to be the entire first half. It is boring and doesn't really make sense, the same way other horror movies don't make sense. It plays out like a low budget horror movie during the first half to such an extreme that it could have been any other movie. There are two good things during this half though. Pennywise is one-half of that equation because he is just so weird and creepy that it really works. His look wasn't immediately scary but the performance grew menacing. At first, the voice didn't really fit the look but it really came into its own and pulled the whole thing together.

The second good thing about the bad first half was the actress who played Beverly, the female in the loser's club. Compared to her male counterparts, her ability to act didn't take an hour to be recognized. She immediately jumped out because of her ability to portray a wide range of emotions which added to the believability of her situation. The main character, in stark contrast, made me wait the first half to make me believe in his stuttering because it didn't seem natural.

Once the movie crosses the halfway mark, it gets pretty good. It is not without its problems, but it becomes infinitely more watchable. The stakes are raised to full effect and more happens. I can't say much without spoiling the movie but it all comes down to better story progression. Things just happened in the first part of the movie, no explanation, they just happened to happen. After that, character decisions are more realistic and less in the vein of horror tropes. There are also great scenes with Pennywise that really make you tense up because they get to you. Summarized by: some pretty good stuff.

From the trailers, IT didn't seem to be worthy of the most watched trailer in 24hrs of all time, but it was entertaining enough for me to accept that fact now. I thought that the movie was going to be pretty from a visual standpoint but it ended up just being pretty average. It almost feels like the first half of the movie was a Stranger Things want to be but it eventually grew into its own thing.

Overall, IT was a pretty good movie and the second half definitely makes up for the first. I am interested to see where the sequel will go and officially on the IT bandwagon. Going into the movie I was ready to write it off, but it is pretty good. I can tell you one thing is for sure, they heavily downplayed the crazy stuff in the book. Let's just say, in the book, there is an underage orgy.
                                       8/10
              You'll like it, even if you don't at first