Just got back from seeing IT. Overall I thought ITwas a decent movie. IT was not a cheap piece of crap. Production design was really good. Pennywise was fantastically realized, and actually made me forget about Tim Curry. The kid actors were great, although the underwear scene was just a bit uncomfortable for me. Henry Bowers was a psycho, good job by the actor making that clear. I don't recall from the book if he fell down that shaft but I do recall his re-appearance during the adult sequences of the book. While there were a few of those "pop out" scares, most of that was utterly predictable, and as such the movie does not realize its true scare potential.
But I will echo what was said above regarding the 80s, bike-riding, movie theater marquee cliched stuff. We've seen that a bunch lately. Hell, parts of this movie even made me think of Super 8. I think they could have given us a different look had they simply made the movie as it was in the book, with the kids' stuff being set in the '50s and having these encounters with the creature from the black lagoon, the wolf man, etc. Probably still have the bicycle thing, and probably even the marquee thing, but I feel like that might have given this a different feel than simply another nostalgic look at the '80s. (And we're getting a real '80s nostalgia-fest next year with Spielberg's Ready Player One by the look of that preview).
Of the books that King published under his own name, I always thought IT was among the very best, but with a couple of notable exceptions, the movies rarely ended up being worth my time. Salem's Lot is an example of a great (TV) movie of a King novel. The Shining, despite Jack Nicholson, is actually not as far as being an adaptation of the book; The Shining is nevertheless quite a great movie simply because of Jack Nicholson, but I never felt like Kubrick's movie was really King's novel on screen. The TV mini-series was far closer to the book than Kubrick's movie was. IT is a fair adaptation, and I will see the second half of IT.
But I will echo what was said above regarding the 80s, bike-riding, movie theater marquee cliched stuff. We've seen that a bunch lately. Hell, parts of this movie even made me think of Super 8. I think they could have given us a different look had they simply made the movie as it was in the book, with the kids' stuff being set in the '50s and having these encounters with the creature from the black lagoon, the wolf man, etc. Probably still have the bicycle thing, and probably even the marquee thing, but I feel like that might have given this a different feel than simply another nostalgic look at the '80s. (And we're getting a real '80s nostalgia-fest next year with Spielberg's Ready Player One by the look of that preview).
Of the books that King published under his own name, I always thought IT was among the very best, but with a couple of notable exceptions, the movies rarely ended up being worth my time. Salem's Lot is an example of a great (TV) movie of a King novel. The Shining, despite Jack Nicholson, is actually not as far as being an adaptation of the book; The Shining is nevertheless quite a great movie simply because of Jack Nicholson, but I never felt like Kubrick's movie was really King's novel on screen. The TV mini-series was far closer to the book than Kubrick's movie was. IT is a fair adaptation, and I will see the second half of IT.
