• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Stephen King's IT |OT| He thrusts his fists and then he posts (Unmarked spoilers)

Elandyll

Banned
Fucking LOVED this movie!

Only thing I didn't like was how they did Mike. Like ... Mike's whole thing, his big contribution to the team, was his historian stuff and the fact that that stuff lead to him
staying back and keeping an eye out on things
. But they gave that to Ben ... and Ben has his love triangle stuff ... and his fat-kid-gone-fit AND successful-after-IT stuff. Unless they massively change part 2 up I don't see shit for Mike. We already know he's an outsider who doesn't even live in the town and I don't see him changing that given he's not the history geek.
That's the thing though.

The idea (as I remember) is that they all get to be very successful but only those who leave Derry.
Mike as a historan/ librarian stays in town to keep an eye on a potential IT return...

So now Ben is supposed to be staying in Derry? That potentially changes a TON of stuff for his character.
 
That's the thing though.

The idea (as I remember) is that they all get to be very successful but only those who leave Derry.
Mike as a historan/ librarian stays in town to keep an eye on a potential IT return...

So now Ben is supposed to be staying in Derry? That potentially changes a TON of stuff for his character.

the director has already commented
that Mike will stay in the town and learn the history but it will take a toll on him fyi
 

Rewrite

Not as deep as he thinks
Just saw it. Fucking loved it man. The kids were the best fucking part and they didn't annoy me once.

Pennywise was great too. Wished he had more dialogue as I enjoyed it whenever he spoke and tried to invoke fear. Definitely gonna watch it again!
 

GhaleonEB

Member
I saw this a second time today with my daughter, this time she brought a friend.

Enjoyed it more the second time around. On first go, I think I had too much of the book in my head and was constantly checking it against the source material. Second go around I was able to just enjoy it for what it is. Which is pretty damn good.

A few random thoughts and bits that I missed.

I can't remember who it was, but one character watches Bill and company riding in the streets, with Bill yelling, "Hi-ho Silver, away!" without stuttering. I missed it on first go-round, but it was nice to have that in (book reference).

I noticed the librarian in Ben's library scene this time; Bobby and others had mentioned her, but I was focused on Ben and didn't notice on first go. The balloon that drifts by appears where she had been, so it's definitely a manifestation of It. Really effective.

Near the end, when Bowers gets his knife in the mail from It, the other two members of the gang are by Belch's car in the driveway. That's the last time we see the two of them - it cuts to Bowers going to kill his dad inside and they vanish from the film. I think there's a scene cut when he kills the two of them, for a couple reasons. First, he enters the house with the knife out, and it looked bloody already. And second, he's driving Belch's car later on, but the other two are not there. Guessing this gets restored in the extended edition.

I appreciated how Pennywise first noticed the kids no longer fearing him, in the house on Neibolt street. When Bill and Ritchie go through the door properly, It turns around and looks equal measures annoyed, disappointed and curious. As the film goes on that transitions to confusion, anger and eventually fear. Really great performance to capture the slowly changing dynamic.

I swear there was a ~sploosh~ when Bowers hit the bottom of the well. He'll be back.

When we first meet Beverly, in the bathroom, she's got bruises on her arms, just below her wrists. Probably from where her father was holding her arms down.

The cop that stops Bowers from kicking the shit out of Bill early in the film is his father. I didn't make the connection until this time through.
 
Watched this yesterday. Fantastic modern horror film. I'm so, so glad to see a non gore/torture-porn horror movie do well.

Probably my favorite horror film since The Babadook and It Follows.

Edit: Oh yeah, Finn Wolfhard's Richie was fucking hilarious, and he really stepped up at the end.

"And now?... Now I'm gonna have to kill this fucking clown."
 
Finally saw it and was pretty surprised, the actually horror elements were like 90% crappy jump scares with the clown running at people with a weird horn going off in the background...

But the actually kids story, acting and cinematography were pretty great and I enjoyed Pennywise when it was just being creepy and speaking to the kids. If they'd cut out the lame jump scares and dialled back the gore it could have made a great gateway horror film.

Yeah. As a movie about kids finding themselves in a group of friends and overcoming their fear, it was pretty good. Good acting, well filmed, lots of great dialogue.

As a horror film, it was pretty bad. Music was completely over the top and had zero subtlety. and there were simply too many run-ins with IT where it proved to have very little actual power. Nobody in the group of friends I saw it with, was scared by the end. Opening scene was great, but that's about it.
 

Nozem

Member
Fantastic movie, I had a great time. Really happy that mainstream horror movies can actually be high quality, and I'm looking forward to part 2.

The only visual effect that I didn't like was the giant Pennywise running around in the garage

Horror movies never scare me anymore but that scene definitely triggered something for me.
 
Liked it, didn't love it, but thought it was a good remake. The gang of misfits was great, and loved how they captured that late 80s/early 90s movie vibes.

Thanks, Stranger Things, for setting standards there!
 

DeathyBoy

Banned
Yeah. As a movie about kids finding themselves in a group of friends and overcoming their fear, it was pretty good. Good acting, well filmed, lots of great dialogue.

As a horror film, it was pretty bad. Music was completely over the top and had zero subtlety. and there were simply too many run-ins with IT where it proved to have very little actual power. Nobody in the group of friends I saw it with, was scared by the end. Opening scene was great, but that's about it.

Why would it be subtle?

It's literally a film where a cosmic entity poses as a clown who shapeshifts depending on what a kid is afraid of. That's never going to be subtle. And it shouldn't be subtle. Because it's a metaphor for kids using their innocence as a weapon but losing it in the process.

Then beating Pennywise to death is the day their childhood officially ends. It's a steady build (language, attraction to Beth, seeing how adults don't care about kids) that pays off with Bill killing his "brother."
 
Why would it be subtle?

It's literally a film where a cosmic entity poses as a clown who shapeshifts depending on what a kid is afraid of. That's never going to be subtle. And it shouldn't be subtle. Because it's a metaphor for kids using their innocence as a weapon but losing it in the process.

Then beating Pennywise to death is the day their childhood officially ends. It's a steady build (language, attraction to Beth, seeing how adults don't care about kids) that pays off with Bill killing his "brother."

Because subtlety and a slow build-up is often more scary and effective than jump scares. I don't think it should be subtle all the time, but when the music goes crazy every time Pennywise is on screen, it stops being effective at a certain point. The opening scene with Georgie is a good example of how it can be done well, and I wish the movie would've gone more in that direction. And don't see how toning down the jump scares and having more of a build up, would ruin the theme of loosing your innocence.

But I also think they should have diverted even more from the book and have Pennywise kill or at least seriously hurt one of the kids in the house. Bens stomach gets cut open, but he just walks around like nothing happened. It's hard to scared of Pennywise when he constantly fails.
 

Sapientas

Member
Watched it this weekend and the "good movie, bad horror movie" opinion fits for me.
The humour, the cinematography, the banter between the Losers and their bonds were all worthwhile and fun to watch. The horror elements not so much.

Didn't feel tension or fear from Pennywise. The only jumpscare that got a honest reaction was when he suddenly appeared to capture Bev. IT's a pretty ineffective antagonist in the end and, even though I hadn't read the book, I knew he wouldn't kill any of the kids.
 

Aurongel

Member
Girlfriend literally screamed so loud and hysterically at the
Bev kidnapping
that I was expecting the Drafthouse to kick us out.
 

truongt

Neo Member
the movie was amazing, however i felt that the CGI was a little off, especially when pennywise turned into the infected leopard but that could just be me
 
Because subtlety and a slow build-up is often more scary and effective than jump scares. I don't think it should be subtle all the time, but when the music goes crazy every time Pennywise is on screen, it stops being effective at a certain point. The opening scene with Georgie is a good example of how it can be done well, and I wish the movie would've gone more in that direction. And don't see how toning down the jump scares and having more of a build up, would ruin the theme of loosing your innocence.

But I also think they should have diverted even more from the book and have Pennywise kill or at least seriously hurt one of the kids in the house. Bens stomach gets cut open, but he just walks around like nothing happened. It's hard to scared of Pennywise when he constantly fails.

That's one of the things the book did better, I think. Since the adult parts are interspersed with the child parts it's a given that we know who survives the initial encounter, its the fate of the adults that's in question. Also there are more killings of ancillary characters directly attributed to Pennywise/It making it feel more menacing.
 

Jetman

Member
Me and the girl both loved it. Neither of us were scared crazy but (shrugs) I've been watching horror movies for years so I honestly didn't expect to be and it wasn't a prequisite for me to enjoy the movie. She hasn't seen very many horror movies and only jumped once or twice but, that didn't make her like it any less either.

The only scene I thought was jarring and took me out if it, I honestly thought was an error in the physical copy of our film or something. The scene where the Losers come out of Neibolt house for the first time was a completely different neighborhood from the one where the house was located. Where the hypochondriac kids' mother grabs him and puts him in the car. Did anyone else see a scene before that when they are running to get away from the house or anything? Unless it was one of Pennywises' visual mental tricks or something?
 

Zee-Row

Banned
I saw it last night and enjoyed it. I didn’t find it scary but I was more interested with the characterizations of the children which was done really well. I thought it was funny how the kids beat the living shit out of Pennywise at the end.

I was wondering though , after they beat Pennywise all the bodies floating came back down and I was wondering if the kids just left them there or told somebody so that the families of those victims can have closure and a body to bury.
 

pixelation

Member
I really liked the movie, but the effects... woof... those look atrocious today so i can only imagine how badly they'll age. That painting that started walking about looked close to a PS2 character. All of the effects were bad and as a result i did not get scared at all in the movie, not once... it's totally not scary when i can tell right away that the monster is CGI.
 
5jRp9pK.jpg


I laughed.
 

Cryxok

Member
I first watched the miniseries earlier this week due to the remake's hype and I liked it, despite being a bit dated. I watched the new movie last night and I really really liked as well. Have never read the book, so I don't know how either compares to it.

I'll drop here some random thoughts of my own:
- The new movie certainly makes Pennywise feel more dangerous, at least early on. In the miniseries, after killing Georgie, Pennywise does absolutely nothing other than taunt the kids, until the sewer scene. The newer one kills at least 2 kids after Georgie and actually tries to kill the losers, most of them right after their first scare, before being stopped by something or someone else.
- Unlike the miniseries, I believe the events in the new movie have a very logical order, SPECIALLY, assuming the adults' part will be similar. I never understood why, for example, Pennywise told Henry "You helped me once, remember?" or why Richie was the most willing to bail out as an adult when as a kid he was easily the bravest. With the events of this movie, those things would now make more sense (I guess that's due to the newer movie being closer to the book?)
- I think Ben got shafted in the new one. At least to me, he came across as one of the more relevant losers before but in the new one he seemed... just there? Was easy for me to forget he was there. And the kiss waking Bev was cliché af IMO. I was excited to see a bit more of Mike since he had barely any screentime as a kid in the miniseries, but was disappointed that he still had very little to work with.
- Richie is STILL my favorite character, despite being a different take on him.
- I like Pennywise best when he's having fun torturing the kids, both in the miniseries and in the new move. I think the new movie could use an extra scene or 2 with Pennywise mocking the kids.
- I think the fact that Pennywise becomes less and less scary as the movie goes on is intentional. After all, it IS the main goal for the kids to overcome their fear of the clown and I guess we, the viewers, are meant to overcome that fear as well.

Hope to watch it again before it gets pulled out of the theaters. Wish I wasn't as work-loaded this week.
 
The production budget of this film was estimated to be about 35 million, which is pretty modest by today's standards.

I wonder if Warner Bros. will pump a bit more resources into the second film given how much money this is raking in.

I personally had no problem with the SFX shots but maybe an increased budget will iron out those potential wrinkles in the sequel.
 
The only scene I thought was jarring and took me out if it, I honestly thought was an error in the physical copy of our film or something. The scene where the Losers come out of Neibolt house for the first time was a completely different neighborhood from the one where the house was located. Where the hypochondriac kids' mother grabs him and puts him in the car. Did anyone else see a scene before that when they are running to get away from the house or anything? Unless it was one of Pennywises' visual mental tricks or something?

I know what scene you're referring to. Your theater didn't mess anything up, that was an intentional flash forward meant to momentarily disorient the audience. I'm sure there's a name for that type of editing trick that I'm not aware of.
 
The production budget of this film was estimated to be about 35 million, which is pretty modest by today's standards.

I wonder if Warner Bros. will pump a bit more resources into the second film given how much money this is raking in.

I personally had no problem with the SFX shots but maybe an increased budget will iron out those potential wrinkles in the sequel.
People are rightly knocking the overall quality of the effects; but the movie is shot beautifully and looks much more expensive than that.
 
I saw this a second time today with my daughter, this time she brought a friend.

Enjoyed it more the second time around. On first go, I think I had too much of the book in my head and was constantly checking it against the source material. Second go around I was able to just enjoy it for what it is. Which is pretty damn good.

A few random thoughts and bits that I missed.

I can't remember who it was, but one character watches Bill and company riding in the streets, with Bill yelling, "Hi-ho Silver, away!" without stuttering. I missed it on first go-round, but it was nice to have that in (book reference).

I noticed the librarian in Ben's library scene this time; Bobby and others had mentioned her, but I was focused on Ben and didn't notice on first go. The balloon that drifts by appears where she had been, so it's definitely a manifestation of It. Really effective.

Near the end, when Bowers gets his knife in the mail from It, the other two members of the gang are by Belch's car in the driveway. That's the last time we see the two of them - it cuts to Bowers going to kill his dad inside and they vanish from the film. I think there's a scene cut when he kills the two of them, for a couple reasons. First, he enters the house with the knife out, and it looked bloody already. And second, he's driving Belch's car later on, but the other two are not there. Guessing this gets restored in the extended edition.

I appreciated how Pennywise first noticed the kids no longer fearing him, in the house on Neibolt street. When Bill and Ritchie go through the door properly, It turns around and looks equal measures annoyed, disappointed and curious. As the film goes on that transitions to confusion, anger and eventually fear. Really great performance to capture the slowly changing dynamic.

I swear there was a ~sploosh~ when Bowers hit the bottom of the well. He'll be back.

When we first meet Beverly, in the bathroom, she's got bruises on her arms, just below her wrists. Probably from where her father was holding her arms down.

The cop that stops Bowers from kicking the shit out of Bill early in the film is his father. I didn't make the connection until this time through.

Great observations.
 
I saw this a second time today with my daughter, this time she brought a friend.

Enjoyed it more the second time around. On first go, I think I had too much of the book in my head and was constantly checking it against the source material. Second go around I was able to just enjoy it for what it is. Which is pretty damn good.

Right there with you. Saw it a second time last night and enjoyed it more. Still a bit disappointed they removed so much of the uniqueness, and simply made IT a thing they could just hurt like any other living thing. Like, he felt pretty weak in the end fight. The kids pretty much just rock his world for a few minutes. But, overall, I enjoyed it more this time, just accepting it for what it is, instead of holding it to the book so much.

I wish we had more stuff like the house scene. That was the scene where it felt like the actor playing Pennywise really got to shine. I don't like some of his delivery in the opening scene, or the way he turns into Simple Jack after making the popcorn sounds. But, that house scene shows the man has it in him to deliver amazing. Everything he does in his moments with Eddie are fucking perfection. Hope the second movie gives him more chances to shine like that scene.

Random thing I noticed. The theater sign calls the movie It: Chapter One. Kind of odd.

Also, that horror ground hogs day, and the haunted camera movie look like fucking trash.
 

Surfinn

Member
some people really notice those things and when you notice imperfect cgi or frame rate drops, it really can be annoying. thankfully I don't see it.
I think the only people who notice these things, given the context, are actively looking for them.

Even the full on cgi shots didn't look bad.
 

RS4-

Member
Only bit that looked off to me was the garage scene.

I didn't have any issues with the painting, looked like it jumped right off, it kept the look instead of, I guess, turning 'realistic'
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
CGI was fine, it's not gonna blow people away but it was never bad or distracting. The only time I thought the movie's effects needed work was when that one kid broke his arm in the abandoned house. It ended up looking like this.
 
Only bit that looked off to me was the garage scene.

I didn't have any issues with the painting, looked like it jumped right off, it kept the look instead of, I guess, turning 'realistic'

This was my thought as well. Looked fine because it wasn't trying to look real, just weird.

People certainly notice CGI without "looking" for it, though. I'm not really bothered by it. It's 2017, every movie is filled with it. At the same, time, I might have been the first person here to poke fun at the CGI balloon in the first teaser/trailer. I wasn't hunting for CGI in a trailer, it just immediately jumped out at me as funny.

A lot of people can immediately tell when something just isn't right, whether it's the way the texture or lighting looks, or the way something moves. Not a bad thing to me, but I notice it. Except when I don't. And then, I don't know. So as far as I know, I ALWAYS notice it.
 
I liked hearing the television in the background in a few scenes hinting at things they'd seen.
That was great. The show hostess was telling kids to go down into the sewers, too.
The only scene I thought was jarring and took me out if it, I honestly thought was an error in the physical copy of our film or something. The scene where the Losers come out of Neibolt house for the first time was a completely different neighborhood from the one where the house was located. Where the hypochondriac kids' mother grabs him and puts him in the car. Did anyone else see a scene before that when they are running to get away from the house or anything? Unless it was one of Pennywises' visual mental tricks or something?
They took Eddie to one of their houses to call the mother to come get him. It's meant to be a passage of time cut.
 
I liked the characterization of It. I haven't read the book and don't know too much about the lore, but it felt like an alien impersonating a human and not realizing how odd it was acting.

Kind of like the bug from Men in Black, now that I think about it. That's my head canon. Not that it's an alien, but the fact that it's an inhuman entity that's trying to pass for what it thinks it normal.
 

Aselith

Member
I am confused why everyone asks about the kills/why pennywise doesn't just murder then right away.

My take was that to truly feed he needed fear and a lot of what he did was to instill fear hoping that they would be petrified by it leading to both a filling meal as well as a death.

This doesn't fully explain the kills on some of the other kids but I think it's his motivation on the main crew.

If that's the case, why did he just immediately murder Georgie/the bully? The confusion comes when he terrorizes some people but then straight murders others with no rhyme or reason.

He's not crazy, he's a hunter so he should be consistent in how he hunts.
 
Watched this again today and noticed something new.

When Bowers says he got with Bev and grabs himself, she looks away and seems almost regretful, implying that she did actually get together with him. Was this confirmed in the book or anything?
 

Gowans

Member
Sae this tonight with the Mrs, both loved it.

What a great film, shades of the goonies in there too and creepy.

She want to watch the mini series now.
 

_Ryo_

Member
Just saw it, came out the theatre like 30 mins ago. I didnt hate it and thought it was pretty good over all. I will have to let it settle for a while before giving a more concrete opinion though.
 

Jetman

Member
I know what scene you're referring to. Your theater didn't mess anything up, that was an intentional flash forward meant to momentarily disorient the audience. I'm sure there's a name for that type of editing trick that I'm not aware of.

Wow, well without any lead in at all, it came off really weird. They could have had a pan away shot of Niebolt with the kids running away then a pan in shot to the house or something.

They took Eddie to one of their houses to call the mother to come get him. It's meant to be a passage of time cut.

How do you know? They didn't show the kids doing that.

Only other weird common sense-y issue I had was after Bev gets taken by Pennywise, Billie just runs right into the house and up to the bathroom. What happened to the padlock on the front door that Bevs dad put on there? Did Pennywise smash it on the way out?
 

RedRum

Banned
Saw it last night. Loved it.

Was not ready for any of the rampart child abuse in the movie though. Pedophilia, metal abuse, over-medicating... christ..
 

Cryxok

Member
If that's the case, why did he just immediately murder Georgie/the bully? The confusion comes when he terrorizes some people but then straight murders others with no rhyme or reason.

He's not crazy, he's a hunter so he should be consistent in how he hunts.

That's something this movie actually tried to address, unlike the miniseries. Georgie wasn't killed off right away, his arm was ripped off. Then, Pennywise dragged him from his feet into the sewer. Who knows how much longer he terrorized the poor thing before dying. Either way, I think the arm ripping + sewer dragging was enough to terrorize Georgie I guess.

Same with the bully, he saw those zombie thingies for a while before Pennywise appeared himself. We also don't know if he was killed right away.

Also, he TRIES to kill some of the losers after the first scare as well. Most notably Billy. I don't know much about the book, but I know there is some sort of turtle entity that's the opposite of Pennywise and there's turtle imagery on many occasions, implying the turtle is protecting them as well I guess? Wonder if they'll explain that in the next chapter.
 
I liked the characterization of It. I haven't read the book and don't know too much about the lore, but it felt like an alien impersonating a human and not realizing how odd it was acting.

Kind of like the bug from Men in Black, now that I think about it. That's my head canon. Not that it's an alien, but the fact that it's an inhuman entity that's trying to pass for what it thinks it normal.

In the novel,
It was always something inhuman taking the guise of something more human-like, BUT it did it to the point that it could pull off it without breaking character. It was basically alive for a LONG time and knew human beings to the point that it could imitate them, move like them and talk like them with ease (no breaking in character). The only times we see a different side of It is when it is in no-nonsense/pissed off mood (like when It is barking orders at old Henry Bowers), or when It is in its Deadlights form, which it talks like some "entity" would talk. In Pennywise's form, It's talky as fuck, something that was a pro-about the mini-series version, and was, IMO, the best parts of the new movie's version (even though I didn't like the particular voice). Some of the things It says just gives you chills. As sick as it would've been, I kinda wanted the Leper to say what he did in the book to Eddie. That shit was scary.

And regarding people talking about the CGI, the only part I had a BIG problem with the CGI was the rock fight. Painted lady was fine in my book, but that rock fight was TRASHOLLA!
 
Top Bottom