A few months ago I was horrified upon viewing the trailer of It. It did not resonate with me at all. Predicable jump scares. Pennywise looking ridiculous instead of creepy and scary. And the overall tone was completely off. Surely more people would think the same right? Nope. For some reason people were loving the trailer and saying they couldn't wait for the movie to be coming out. Well, the movie has been out for a couple of weeks now and most people are loving it. Raving, praising and rating it like it is one of the best movies ever made. What do I think? It's a total crapfest.
All my fears have come true and the majority of the film is very much like the trailer predicted. Actually I think the film is easily worse. Pennywise is one big CGI joke and rarely looks real or creepy. Let alone terrifying. Not once and let me repeat that again, not once was I scared or terrified. Nor was I creeped or freaked out. Actually I kept waiting for the horror goodness to hit me and at times it seemed to be coming and then the poorly made CGI effects ruined it for me. At one point I told myself to not treat this as a horror film but as an adventure like some reviewers suggested. So I did and guess what. It didn't change a thing. I barely cared about the story. I barely cared for the kids and I certainly wasn't on the edge of my seat to see what would happen next. Because I had a pretty good idea what was going to happen. That would have been fine had the film something to offer me. But there was nothing of interest to me. I kept reading how this It was similar to Stranger Things. Even one of the kids from that show was in this film. While Stranger Things was a little underwhelming it had much more going on for itself. It was oozing with atmosphere and did the Eighties a whole lot better than It. Plus the adventure and action elements are superior. Here I never could take anything seriously.
Then I tried to approach it like a coming of age drama which was really hard to do since we barely know the characters and what they are about. Here and there we are told what their issues are. But not nearly as explicit as needed. A coming of age drama should show a development of characters. In order to do that justice the audience is required to know as much as we can about them. And you never do. All you get is glimpses and pieces. Better still, you aren't shown that the characters have developed but you are told. Literally. Yes the main characters call themselves losers. And at the end they are winners. Of course I know that these kids had specific and unique fears that they had to overcome and did so at one point. You know how I know this? Because of the mini-series. I never read the book but did see that one. For the sake of objectivity I tried to block all knowledge of that mini-series and judge the film on it's own merit. I did. Still after I had finished the movie it did dawn on me that the mini-series did some things better. Far better.
I tried to keep an open mind about this project and was very willing to be proven wrong. I actually want to be surprised and terrified. But to be honest, this film is not even scary or thrilling for kids. So those people who claim this is the best horror film ever made. You need to seek help. The world is a crazy, scary and hard place. It's far scarier than anything in this movie. If you are so delicate to be creeped out and scared by this film you don't have what it takes to cope in the real world.
It (2017) is a total disappointment. It's not remotely scary or creepy. Even approaching it like an adventure movie or coming of age drama it falls incredibly short. It is beyond me how people can claim this is the best horror movie ever made. Are you kidding me?
Also read:
No comments:
Post a Comment