Andres Muschietti will bring his big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 horror classic to the big screen this weekend.
Rotten Tomatoes has the film on an impressive 91% reviews aggregate, but this only highlights the rather uneven way the site calculates its final figure.
The majority of the reviews are, indeed, positive, but many of them come with caveats and reservations.
The overwhelming majority of comments praise the young cast and the effectiveness of focusing on their storylines to draw the audience in, but many reviewers felt that Pennywise and the overt horror elements were much less effective.
IT MOVIE REVIEWS ROUND-UP NEXT:
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It movie reviews round-up
Entertainment Weekly: It is essentially two movies.
The better by far (and it’s very good) is the one that feels like a darker Stand by Me — a nostalgic coming-of-age story about seven likable outcasts riding around on their bikes and facing their fears together. Less successful are the sections that trot out Pennywise. The more we see of him, the less scary he becomes. Unless you’re really afraid of clowns, he just seems kind of cartoony after a while.
It doesn’t shy away from nastiness and definitely earns its R rating. There’s implied incest, bullying in the extreme, and children are violently attacked. But that raises the question: Who exactly is It for? Its heroes, like its audience, are kids. What responsible parent will buy their tickets?
WATCH REAL PEOPLE TERRIFIED BY PENNYWISE IN HIDDEN CAMERA PRANK
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It movie villain Pennywise
Variety: King fans will surely appreciate the clear effort and affection that went into this adaptation, even as it struggles to become more than the sum of its parts.
Nerdist: Yes, I crawled out of my skin and yes, Pennywise is still scary as all get-out, but the real strength of this film lies in The Losers Club and that incredible cast.
Empire Magazine: More successful as a coming-of-age movie than a horror, It still ranks among the better Stephen King adaptations – no small praise indeed.
Forbes: This is less an adaptation of the book and more a Cliff Notes version of the TV mini-series.
USA Today: The infamous clown is plenty freaky, though it’s the youngsters, bursting with hormones and one-liners, who make It one of the better Stephen King adaptations.
As directed by Andy Muschietti (Mama), It has definite scare-fest qualities — sorry, Tim Curry, Bill Skarsgård is now the quintessential Pennywise. But it’s more a small-town adventure for seven kids in Derry, Maine, who wear their Losers’ Club nickname with honor. Though it’s a little long and doesn’t perfectly execute its grand ambitions, the movie emphasizes the story’s nuanced coming-of-age sentiment rather than being all horror, all the time, capturing the low-key brilliance of King’s writing.
You don’t root for the Losers’ Club just because you’re supposed to — each kid has a complete arc and time to shine as well as mess things up. The cast of mostly unknowns is spectacular from top to bottom.
Time Out: Predictable bouts with high school bullies who get their comeuppance, summertime bonding down by the water hole, awkward crushes: It all seems tired in our post-Stand by Me moment.
indieWire: The resulting two-and-a-half hour horror-adventure saga winds up a serviceable adaptation and nothing more.
Chicago Tribune: What do we have here, really? We have a story that feels not so much freshly imagined as dutifully recounted.
Screen International: The film compellingly articulates the universal anxieties associated with adolescence. Consistently, persuasively unnerving, “It” turns the coming-of-age drama into a nightmare.