"it" was by far better than I thought, cant remember the last time I had that much fun at the theater
Watched Raw. Tried to set my expectations low for this one after all the annoying buzz ("It'z French! Walk-outs ooh la-la!!!"), still felt disappointed. It veers between dark comedy, hip feminist statement and plain old horror film, ultimately ending up just meh despite some promisingly gross and twisted moments during the first half. The final "reveal" is beyond fucking retarded: Spoiler Turns out cannibalism apparently is a hereditary disease in France and mom has been nibbling on dad all along, durr.
So It. It's a really good movie, one of the better King adaptations out there for sure. Is it scary? There are certainly some creepy moments, few have to do with Pennywise actually, and enough jump scares to keep you on your toes, but I wouldn't call it scary per se (the first trailer gave me goosebumps, but I didn't get spooked during the movie). There's some gore, but it's minimal and pretty tame. The acting from the kids is solid, only a few scenes played out kind of awkwardly, but for the most part they all nailed it. The standout for me was the little dude who plays Eddie. And the girl who plays Beverly Marsh was a breath of fresh air. There is a good amount of humor, and quite a bit of it is music related. This takes place in the '80s, so some of you guys will get a kick out of a couple of the song choices. Skarsgard is good as Pennywise, much more menacing than Tim Curry. There's a bit too much CGI for my taste, but they do some interesting stuff with his eyes. The drooling is a happy accident that works well. To be honest, it's no more faithful to the book than the mini-series was. Having just re-read it I was surprised at how much was left out, and a tad bothered by some of the changes they made. Most of it was character related and just seemed strange. A very important locale in the book was barely mentioned in the movie, which kind of bummed me out. I think this would have been a knock-out as a limited series on Netflix, maybe 6 episodes, but any movie from the book is going to feel condensed and rushed. Curious if there will be a director's cut, or extended version available when it hits Blu-Ray. I'll definitely see it again, and will be buying this on disc when it comes out. Solid movie.
I got like halfway through and called it a day. It is incredibly rare that I end up feeling no connection to anyone or anything in an entire movie but that is exactly what happened. Felt like I was watching some awful student film with occasional neat gore effects and I just couldn't be bothered to finish it. I want to read all the IT impressions I see posted but I am avoiding them until after I catch the film. I will read your guys thoughts later though!
Spoiler dont you feel there will be a lot more digging and such in chapter 2? At first I felt they were going to just wrap this up as one movie, it was a fun ride, and it blew me away because they have this cash cow now. First I personally had just okay expectations for the movie, it surprised me how much I liked it. I actually feel it's good enough for some to go back for a second viewing, and then of course, many will be dialed in for chapter 2 now.
From what I've heard, they're going to delve into Pennywise's past, which is actually very interesting to me. It's discussed in the book quite a bit. So I'm now wondering if the grown-up versions of the kids will even be in it. I think I'd be cool if they aren't, since that aspect of the book, and definitely the mini-series, is the weaker part. Although, if they could bounce back and forth that'd be cool too.
I hear you, I barely made it through myself. I don't need "likeable" leads, but those girls FUCKING EVERYBODY was exceptionally annoying...
Thanks for the 'It" reviews, going to see it this afternoon.I might chime in later with thoughts. So this doesn't wrap up in one movie? Well that is a little disappointing.
It kind of wraps up. It really could stand alone in a way, but this is only the "kids" portion of the story.
I'm glad it wasn't just me. I was starting to think it was a cultural thing because everyone in that whole movie seemed totally alien to me and they were almost all just assholes. Even the "normal" characters needed to be punched in their jerk faces.
That seems to be a failure in a lot of modern horror, everyone's a dick. Makes it hard to slog through a movie if you don't like anybody.
It really doesn't say that much in the book about pennywise' past beyond they're was a clown/ Bob Grey, and the Glamour then assumed the character. King does allot of flash back Derry history w/ Mike talking to all the old timers. Maybe they'll go into it falling from the extra dimensional rip and all the macroverse stuff. I only really enjoy the losers club stuff. Some of the stuff when they're adults is ok, but... eh.
But pretty much all the old Derry stuff is tied into Pennywise's presence there. So any of those stories can be used as P's back-story. Maybe I should clarify that when I'm referring to Pennywise, I mean the creature that uses that guise as his preferred iteration.
I agree it could of stood alone and been done, then I saw it "chapter 1" and was kind of thrilled for another experience in a year or 2 back into the Derry.
Pretty sure it was all contingent on how well the first one did. If I were a betting man, I'd say that the Chapter One title at the end was a late addition to the prints.
I would say that the IT movie was really fantastic. Clowns definitely don't scare me but i found the effects to be way better than the old TV series. The kids have a much more solid development in the story plot. At least i thought so. However nothing will replace the Tim Curry version of Pennywise. To be fair i though the new Pennywise actor did a good job. And i can understand they were trying to be as serious as possible with this movie version as they could be. All that being said im not sure its a good idea trying to milk the adult version unless its going to be super solid. For me the kid part of the original movie always seemed like the more solid aspect of the series while the adult part was just felt like a very unnecessary feature. In fact i think this movie did it right by just making the first movie all about the kids in case this other movie blows.
I enjoyed it, even though got a little disjointed towards the end. The bully goes psycho on his Dad then ends up there right when the kids were confronting Pennywise?!, Bev is victim and floating but she never got killed and chewed up like the rest of the victims- didn't make sense (I never read the book so....) All that aside though the kid actors did a solid job and the Skarsgard sibling playing Pennwise was very menacing!
The adult portion of the book is the weaker part, too. But at least in the book they go back and forth between adult and kid parts of the story, until the end. So it breaks up the less interesting stuff with more kid stuff. The thing with Bev isn't in the book. But, the reason they gave in the movie is that Pennywise didn't kill her because she wasn't afraid of him. He feeds on fear. The stuff with Henry Bowers is also very different from the book. His dad is not a cop, for one thing. And he and all his buddies follow the Losers into the sewers, Henry survives, although he's driven mad by the Dead Lights. He ends up being blamed for the murders and locked away in an asylum. In the movie the part with Henry seemed very rushed. There's a ton of character stuff that's different. In the book, Mike is the one who has all the clippings of Derry's history, and his parents (or his dad at least) is still alive. Not sure why they changed that. Ben is actually into building stuff, not history. The more I think about it, the miniseries actually stays closer to the book, but still cuts out a TON of stuff. I could go on and on about the other changes, but I'll spare you.
When It was originally published, I had already lost interest in Stephen King; but not in a snotty way. Never read it. When the TV movie came out, I was completely disinterested in it; in a snotty way. Ignored it. When I read, however long ago, that a feature was in the works, I felt nothing. My loss?
By the time the book came out, my interest in King was waning, and TBH the book was soooo long it didn't help matters. Plus the ending seemed way way out there to me (I knew nothing of Lovecraft at the time really, which was an inspiration here). I reread it a couple months ago in about 7 days, and LOVED it. Loved it, loved it. At first I was miffed again that even minor characters each get about 20 pages of backstory, but man, it's just so well-written compared to previous books it's amazing. I'm struggling to get through Pet Sematary right now, which I've always considered a favorite. It's just not FULL enough. There's so much emotional depth in It I found myself crying in many parts, not a normal thing for me. The mini-series has always been meh for me. The actors are extraordinarily mis-cast across the board. I don't even think that much of Curry as Pennywise, contrary to most. Plus, it was on TV. The new movie is good. Take that for what it's worth.
Not necessarily horror movie related, but sorta related, is anyone gonna be at "Son of Monsterpalooza" next week?
I really did miss the Hanlon V Bowers conflict from the book. It was one of the more important emotional, and socially relivant parts of the book. I can't read the part where Sadistic ass Henry poisons Mr Chips. These are important parts of the book they left out. Also the Blackspot fire... I could have sworn Mike's first incointer with IT was a blackspot flashback, from looks of the trailer. I herd tell that they were going to explore the weird homo erotic relationship between Henry and Patric, but instead they just use Patrick as an easy kill, and gave him Stan's original experience from the book. They never delve into how much of a sociopath Patrick is, and maybe the only time in the book I rooted for IT to kill some one. I thought Ben should have been bigger. I'd always thought he'd been like 190 pounds at 10. They made him a wimp. i don't mind much else. Over all it was fantastic. Soundtrack was good. Visually so good!
Off the It train for a minute here, but finally got a chance to watch Road Games with Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee C., and it was a lot of fun. I actually enjoyed Keach in this, and he's never been a fave of mine. Nice little Ozploitation flick to while away a couple hours with.
A couple of my friends are going. I am quite jealous. 47 Meters Down was a lot of fun. Not exactly horror but close enough for me. It starts slow and somewhat annoying but once things get wet it has some great moments. The acting and dialog are good enough to fill the spaces between sharks. There were a couple of GREAT moments and the slow build really pays off near the end. Not mild blowing stuff by any means but underwater scenes are always extra tense and claustrophobic and the last 30 minutes is a great ride even if it's a bit emotionally empty.
