I didn't really buy this. It was well cast and had some good sequences but mostly I wasn't scared, and I don't think there was really much meat to the movie.
I didn't post about this. It really sucked. Baffled by the praise.
The severed arm perfectly acquitted itself, because of the simplicity of its wishes and its total lack of doubt.
I wouldn't go so far as saying it sucked, but it's a movie that's more perfunctory than good, really.
It does have great visuals.
I'm annoyed they changed the setting from the 50's to the 80's. What's wrong with the 50's?
I think the idea was to modernize it, so now when we return in part 2, we'll be closer to the present day.Quoting Isaac (view post)
This didn't sit quite as well with me on a second viewing. The scares felt a touch hackier, and while some kids' arcs are fairly clear and well-communicated (Bill fares best, with Bev and Eddie up next), Mike and Stan aren't allowed the space to really be who they are. Hell, Mike's storyline feels downright butchered. His development seems to focus on his issues with hesitation, difficulty in making the tough calls (tied to his anxiety over not being able to help his parents during the fire). But there seems to me a huge (inverse) difference between the hesitation to kill a sheep for a meat company and the hesitation to save loved ones. And when he briefly splits from the group, he says his grandpa says "You're an outsider." Which... huh?
[Curiously, the film also zips past the late-summer reunion. Bill and Richie reunite, Eddie confronts his mother and leaves, and then... they're all biking? I would've liked to see Bill ask for Stan's help. To see what brought Mike back. He knew Beverly for, like, a day. To see Ben's reaction when Bill has to tell him that Bev's missing.]
[I mean, the Bev getting damseled thing is some bullshit, but if you're gonna do it, actually do it and pay it off with impact on the other characters.]
There are also weird moments that suggest some desperate choices in the edit bay. Example: Eddie's biking with everybody in the scene where they visit Ben's Exposition Room, and in the very next scene, he's walking. What happened to his bike? Did we trim something in between the two scenes?
In general, I have to think that they were fucking around with the first half's sequencing right until release. That would explain why - per my initial reaction - the kids were curiously un-traumatized by their initial traumas with Pennywise. It may be the case that it was intentionally written as disconnected/episodic. That way, they could lift and reshuffle the scenes without fear of losing the overall story shape. You can be charitable and say that Mike / Stan / Ben would be the least likely to tell others (Mike and Ben are relatively new to the group, Stan's a skeptic), but it doesn't seem to even break their stride. I'm not sure how this could be communicated, but maybe some more distraction to their acting. Maybe they're checking over their shoulders. Maybe while Stan's in Ben's house, he briefly sees the woman in the corner, but it's his imagination. That may sound hacky, but it does feel like something's missing.
I also wish we got a sense of Richie and Ben's home life.
In general, I think the film could've really sturdied up its storytelling foundations with another 10-15 minutes.