Doesn't hold up to repeated viewing

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

preciousroy

Well-Known Member
Apr 4, 2018
175
661
I was very excited to see a modern adaptation of IT but I have to agree that it didn't hold up. I know the screenplay went through development hell and I believe that may account for some of the disjointed experience I had watching the movie.

I hestitate to use specific examples because I don't want to commit spoilery but the movie felt like its voice kept jumping around from kid to kid instead of being about the group. There was terrible thematic dialog that never came back to have any meaning.

There were scenario additions that were unnecessary. Even the choice of era-appropriate music seemed on par with middle school writing. Watching the scene in the bathroom I felt like I could almost guarantee whoever wrote it chose the song for the number 6 and wrote around it.

The kiss was kinda creepy and didn't work outside of Hollywood cliche. Most of all, man was I disappointed with what they did with Patrick Hockstetter. I remember following the IT 2017 forum posts on imdb before the purge and Patrick Hockstetter being included in the casting was all the rage. It was a travesty what they did to him in the movie and a giant waste. What was even the point?

I have been forced to ask myself what was so great about the miniseries that makes me prefer it still. It clearly had its flaws and was heavy on cheese and it too had unnecessarily added scenes. Is it perhaps because of who I was when I first saw it and where I was in life that the miniseries impacted me much more than the modern adaptation? Maybe, so.

I would like to add that I felt like the kids did a great job playing the characters in the new adaptation and I did enjoy their chemistry on-screen. I also loved the new Pennywise and feel like he wasn't utilized to his full potential.
 

Gerald

Well-Known Member
Sep 8, 2011
2,201
7,168
The Netherlands
How come when all the boys are going to dive into the river off the ledge, they all are wearing white underpants?

It was a pretty minor thing but I noticed this too, it was a bit strange. The underwear also looks kind of old fashioned, if I remember correct, older than the eighties. But I decided it was just a small town and they probably didn't have a lot of choice in the store.
 

Blake

Deleted User
Feb 18, 2013
4,191
17,479
I thought all the actors were good especially Sophia Lillis. At the end, there's a red typed barn thing over a river and I was wondering if that was the same location as in the scene in Silver Bullet.
 

Rockym

Well-Known Member
Feb 11, 2012
77
236
I kind of agree with the OP. I saw the movie when it first came out in theaters and thought it was a very good movie but a really lousy adaptation. The kids acted well in it, but they weren't much like how the kids were in the book. For one thing, Bev didn't have a reputation of being slutty and she certainly didn't act that way in the book. I think maybe the change in time period setting and aging the kids a couple of years really changed the story too much and hurt it more than helped.

In hindsight, and now having just finished another reread of the book, I'd even say the 90s miniseries was a far better adaptation of the story than the 2017 movie. Tim Curry was a much better Pennywise than Bill Skarsgård. Curry's Pennywise was taunting and wisecracking like Pennywise in the book while Skarsgård's was just talking and acting creepy most of the time.
 

ServantThirteen

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2016
103
383
49
I thought the movie movie turned out great. Having said that I will admit IT is one of the King books i have yet to read so I have nothing to compare the movie too. I may have a change of attitude once I read it. But as a stand alone movie....great story and great actors.
 

Ceefor

Proud Member Of The SKMB, 21.05.13 - 30.06.20
May 21, 2013
2,126
5,753
52
Screen-Shot-2013-09-07-at-7.43.14-PM.png
I don't know why, but this pic made me laugh way harder than it should've..! His face...! :biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2: