If you haven't read the novel and/or haven't watched the original miniseries then this post has spoilers.
In the 1980s a group of seven 11 year olds are drawn together by mysterious and horrible events in their hometown of Derry Maine to fight an ancient evil in the form of Pennywise the Clown (played by Bill Skarsgard).
The child actors were mostly great. Bill Skarsgard did an excellent job playing Pennywise. I confess that when this movie was announced I was nervous that whoever played Pennywise might try to replicate Tim Curry's perfect performance. I didn't know who Bill Skarsgard was but, being familiar with his family, I had hope that he would do well. He didn't disappoint. He did such a great job of putting his own spin on the character while giving the impression of giving respect to the original.
Overall the movie was ok and, after reading the novel, I would say that it's more accurate to say that this movie was inspired by the original novel as opposed to being an accurate screen adaptation of the novel. Just because they got the most basic gist of the story doesn't make this an actual screen adaptation of the novel. It isn't simply that the novel is so big that it can't be done fully by just two movies. They full on made fundamental changes that completely miss the mark of the novel and the original miniseries. It's all well and good to make slight adjustments (see the original miniseries to better understand) but many of the changes that were made took away rather than added to the movie. It was disappointing because the novel is so good that it should have been easier to make a great movie. All of the writing was done for them in the novel, all they had to do was figure out how to bring it to the big screen. They failed on so many levels.
They did do well on jump scares. This film has quite a bit of jump scares that are for the most part good.
If you haven't already, read the novel (I know it looks big but it is so well written that you won't notice) and watch the original miniseries.
This movie shouldn't necessarily be avoided but just know that they got it wrong.
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