It film series review- a review of all films in the It series

It film series- a review by Eric Carter:

Before we get started, I’m going to give an important disclaimer, I’m only going to be comparing the parts from the miniseries where our main characters are kids. I’m going to completely disregard the segments where the adults in this comparison. The reason is because the movie is split into two parts. The first focuses on the characters when are younger and the second will focus on when they are adults. So in the second movie comes out, then I will make another bus video and compare the adults in both versions. So consider this versus video a part one until the second movie comes out. And for the record, if you guys were too disturbed by the opening scene in the remake, then you might as well stop watching right there as you will hate the movie. So with that said, let the battle commence. Now, the story for both of these adaptations is essentially the same, where they differ is in their execution and this can most certainly be a mixed bag. For example, when Billy is grieving over the death of his brother in the movie, I thought it was complete garbage. He completely lacked all of the emotional responses one would go through when dealing with the death of a younger sibling. He didn’t even look at him and his dad. Just have a quick moment where his father yells at him that George is dead and that set the scene is over. And although I get what the movie was trying to accomplish, the scene had absolutely no emotional cues to it.

And it just came off as completely fake and emotionally contrived in the miniseries. However, it actually does a great job of showcasing Billy’s guilt and emotional discomfort when coming to grips with his brother’s death. And most importantly, it was one of the very few scenes in the miniseries that wasn’t dragged out well, except when the parents show up, then it just becomes weird. Like, Listen, I don’t want you ever coming in here again, do you understand? But the miniseries really does falter when it comes to pacing out the story. Although the scenes with the kids can be entertaining, they can also be very slow as well. And unfortunately, that does have a negative impact on the overall pacing and narrative, not to mention of the conclusion to the kid’s story was also quite underwhelming. Now, seeing as the movie is the first of a two part story, I was afraid that much like the miniseries, it was going to end in an incomplete and bittersweet way. But thankfully, this feels like its own film and it actually ends in a way where it doesn’t even need a sequel to feel satisfying. Seriously, if the story ended here, I would be perfectly fine with it and I really must applaud them for leaving it open ended without being blunt. In other words, they didn’t pull what Peter Jackson did with The Hobbit films. So of the two versions, which story did I prefer? Well, it’s no competition to me.

The movie has the far better story. It’s far better paced and is told much more efficiently and coherently, whereas in the miniseries it unfolds very slowly. Now, the kids in the miniseries are really good, despite the show’s rating being very inconsistent. The kids come off a sympathetic, funny and even somewhat relatable, and watching them interact and live their day to day lives is very interesting, or at least it is when they’re in school, whenever they go home and interact with the adults. That’s when all sense of the word natural goes flying out the window pretty much across the board. The adults are the worst actors in the series and it really doesn’t help that. They are also the worst written. And I have absolutely zero interest in watching the kids in their home lives in their school. And social lives are the most interesting. And when the show focuses on that is great. But that being said, there are problems here, too. Even when the miniseries just simply introduces the kids one at a time, the show really pasar and mixing through it feel very monotonous. Having said that, the miniseries did have some truly honest moments to the scene where Billy asks all his friends for help to avenge his brother was genuinely heartfelt. Now, in the movie, when the kids get introduced pretty much instantly, you can’t help but like them. They each have their own individual insecurities and strengths, and watching them cost surprisingly worked and made them feel like real kids.

It reminded me very much of the way Steven Spielberg used to get his kids to cut in films like E.T.. Now, I’m not saying I endorse the idea of kids swearing. I’m just saying that it comes off as far more natural and realistic than your average sugarcoated movie that makes that communication feel very filtered and artificial. What also really impressed me about them is how they actually got to grow and come to grips with each of their own individual fears. That is something that I felt was lacking in the miniseries, even though it was there. It didn’t hit you in the same sense of achievement as the new movie did. So out of all the kids, the ones I preferred the most is from the 2017 movie. Now, I’m not done talking about the characters just yet. Next up, let’s talk about the walking stereotypes that are always standard in any Stephen King story. The bullies now in typical Stephen King fashion, the bullies aren’t bullies. They are murderers. And whereas their screen time, the movie is pretty minimal in the miniseries, they have been given way too much. Practically every time we are introduced to a new kid character, these very same bullies come to pick on them. And every single time in conventional Stephen King fashion, they don’t threaten to hurt them. They threaten to kill them. As a matter of fact, I’m really surprised that they haven’t been expelled, arrested or even imprisoned yet.

They must have built a reputation at the school at this point with all the shit they’ve been up to. And that goes tenfold for the bullies in the movie. I mean, if you thought they were crazy in the mini series, then you are in for a surprise as they are downright demented in the movie. In the miniseries, they would quickly transition from being somewhat normal bullies to the maniacal and murderous Stephen King stereotypes. But in the movie, there is no such transition. They just start off as murderous psychopaths and they only get worse from there. I mean, my God, all they do is yell, shout and attempt violent act after violent act. Now, they do try to explain why the main bully is the way he is after he has a confrontation with his father. And although it did give us a reason, it was not good enough. I don’t sympathize with this kid. And as far as I’m concerned, he is no different from a young serial killer. And there are countless times where you just want to kill him yourself. Which portrayal of the bullies do I prefer? Well, although I hated the more in the movie, and that does get you more concerned for the well-being of our main characters. I have got to go with a miniseries. They are exaggerated, but they do have more of a natural motivation behind their actions. Well, natural when compared to these guys. And finally, let’s talk about the adults.

What else can I say except the adults act so bloody weird and it’s not the world or anything. It’s just bad writing. For example, the typical Stephen King boy picks on the new kid and calls him fat. So rightfully so. The teacher gives him detention and sends him to the principal’s office. And right after that he says this, your dead fat boy and the teacher stays completely silent. I mean, what the hell? Calling him fat is punishable by detention and a visit to the principal’s office. But a death threat has no repercussions. What the hell kind of teacher is this? The most disturbing thing is that this isn’t the only one. There are other teachers that let the bullies off the hook, too. And they also deem it necessary to punish the kid getting bullied rather than the bully himself. Now, yeah, I know you can argue that the adults are under some sort of control by it. And although that’s a valid point when it comes to some scenes, that’s not a valid argument when it’s applied to the bullies. So with regards to the adults, both movies significantly suffer here. But that being said, they were seriously downplayed in the new movie and were practically non-existent. And honestly, that’s something the minister is desperately needed to incorporate with his own adults. So the adaptation with the better adult characters and better characters in general is the movie. OK, now it’s time to talk about the segment.

You have all been waiting for the. Now, Tim Curry has made the character of Pennywise iconic with his exaggerated performance prior to this, the phobia of clowns did exist. But Curry is renowned for having instilled into people at a very young age when kids were growing up. This is the first clown they would see in the mainstream. And it makes sense as to how a murderous clown would severely taint their outlook on this type of appearance. So I do appreciate and admire how powerful Tim Corey’s performance was and how it managed to scare this much people. Now, having said that, I personally don’t find him. Corey’s pennywise scary. Listen, there are a couple scenes where his makeup looks creepy, but other than that, I don’t find him the least bit frightening, especially when he does stuff like this. Excuse me. Do you. Can you. Do you see what I mean? Also, you never really see him do anything harmful or physically violent to the kids. The most he does is just pick one of them up, but he picks them up in the same way. A costume person I Chucky Cheese, would pick up a kid. After a while, you start to pick up on the formula and notice that anytime Pennywise shows up, it’s just to take the shape of their worst fear, revert back into the clown, say a couple jokes, show off his teeth and the kids run away. It becomes so formulaic that you soon realize there’s nothing to be scared of because, you know, he isn’t going to do anything.

Now, I know the whole point of the creature is to scare the kids before eating them, but in the miniseries, he never really attempts to come after them in the movie. On the other hand, he shows up trying to scare them and then he immediately tries to get a hold of them and they just manage to get out in the nick of time. But on a couple of occasions, they definitely would have been gone as if one of the other kids hadn’t intervened. And yes, Penny Wise in the movie is much scarier. He is so much more intimidating and dangerous in the miniseries. I always think that someone could be the living crap of him with a bat or something. But this one, you just don’t feel like you can survive an assault with him. He is also much more prominent in this version, whereas he has just shown in quick spurts in the miniseries. He also has more influence over the adults as opposed to the series, and it does come off as more convincing here. Also, I know this comes down to budgets, but Tim Curry would come off as two human 100 percent of the time just in the way he talks and especially the way he moved for bills, because God is very unnatural in the way he walks and his body contours and rotates and oh, it’s really creepy.

It convincingly gives you the impression that he’s a fully filtered illusion. But underneath it all, he has something else. Tim Curry, on the other hand, just comes off as a prankster. Most of the time. I know that the creature likes to play with his food, but there is a difference between scaring them to make them tastier and then just playing immature pranks like this. He makes a bloody mess. Beverly cleans it up and as soon as she turns away. I’m confused. Is that supposed to be scary or annoying either way, when you hear Tim Curry’s laugh, it just makes the seem funny in the movie. Whenever he shows up to scare the kids, the scene is genuinely frightening. And at times it actually tells you something subtle about his character. He is also very cruel and provocative. On quite a few occasions, he actually got me mad. There was one scene in particular in the third act where he got me so mad, but I wanted to beat the shit out of him myself. For a movie to have that effect on me is really impressive as it shows just how much it got me invested, arguably too invested. But regardless, it’s something I never experienced even once with Tim Curry’s penny wise. Now, for all the good things I do have, my fair share of complaints with the new penny was my first complaint is that his playful voice is too cynical and murderous whenever he is supposed to be charming people.

And on top of that, the way in which he presents himself is to blatantly dishonest. No one with common sense would trust him. And Pennywise is meant to encapsulate the look of both a friendly clown and a murderer. And although he does have a little bit of charm to manipulate the kids, it isn’t enough. Kids aren’t stupid. If they see someone like this, they would just run away. But for the sake of the movie, the kind of dumb them down, in particular with Georgie, just to let the iconic scene happen. And yes, we will talk about this scene in the next segment. Also, when Penny Wise talks for prolonged periods of time, he does lose a large amount of his intimidation factor, particularly in the final act when he talks to the kids a lot more. And those are all my complaints. Overall, I think Bill Skarsgard did a far superior job at representing this monster for what he truly is. People who have read the book have described him to me. And unlike Tim Curry, this definitely seems like an accurate representation to what I have been told about him and he genuinely did startle me. Will he go down in history and pop culture as a horror icon like Tim Curry? Well, probably not. He will definitely be more memorable than your average horror villain. But we have so much other well-known and marketable horror characters nowadays that Pennywise will be a fun pick, but he won’t be the first one people refer to.

Now, I don’t have a clown phobia, but for those of you that do, this will really mess you up psychologically. So Bill Skarsgard absolutely steals this round as Penny Wise the clown. OK, now let’s not beat around the bush. Let’s talk about the most iconic scene of both adaptations, the scene with Penny Wise and Georgie. Now, for all the corniness that Tim Curry gleefully inhabits throughout his performance as penny wise, it is this scene that really scared everyone. And I have got to admit, although I didn’t scare me, it is one of the only scenes where Tim Curry plays the character straight and quite intense. He balances out the creepiness whilst also injecting plenty of charm to catch this kid. But most of all, it’s the redness around his eyes that really looks creepy to me. And then, of course, he brings out the teeth. And since this is the first time we see them, it was cruel and intense. But the scene does come away in a typical PG 13 fashion, you know, so. But I was not particularly fussed about it going away, so in the miniseries, it was a pretty decent attempt at adapting the scene. As for the scene in the movie, oh, my God, this scene was full of tension and it was so eerily shot. Not to mention that unlike Tim Curry, you can practically see this pennywise shaking and drooling with starvation as he looks at this kid.

But simultaneously, he’s trying to maintain his composure to not frighten Georgie off. But you can tell that he is so close to slipping and once he grabs George his hand and bites his arm off. It was horrible. An absolutely brutal. The scene doesn’t just cut either. It actually dwells on the kid’s injury and even shows him crying about it. This scene was just messed up and believe it or not, but whilst I was writing this video, I looked the scene up on YouTube so I can find more stuff to say about it in this versus video. And it messed me up after watching the scene. It made me feel horrible. And I didn’t feel like thinking about the movie or even writing about it. I just felt like I had a strong case of writer’s block. And I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, really. I’m still kind of uncertain, but I do know that the scene needed to happen as it perfectly set the tone for the rest of the movie and showcased how merciless and vile this creature really is. As a matter of fact, if you know what is going to happen in the scene only makes it scarier because you are just waiting and nervously anticipating what the outcome will look like. Other than that, the rest of the horror in the movie was fantastic. And for the life of me, I can’t believe people are saying this is more of a thriller like get out rather than a horror.

As far as I’m concerned, this was scarier than unable to and about as intense as The Conjuring, and I would never say that lightly. There were absolutely no fake jump scares. And every time they happened, they were well-organized, fast paced and extremely effective with both their visuals and stellar sound design quite a few times. They would also burn an image into your brain. And later, when you reflect on the movie, those images come rushing right to the surface of your mind. For me, it was the scene in the projector room. Now you do get some silly stuff brought over from the source material, such as the balloons. And no, as you would expect, they were not scary. But the movie did keep their utilization to a minimum and they were primarily there to serve a purpose rather than to scare you. The miniseries, on the other hand, was very overreliant on making the balloon scary. And every time they showed up, you couldn’t help but laugh. Now, the balloons were less prominent during the scenes involving the kids, but there were more muscles shoved into the scenes with the adults. But I will make those comparisons when the second movie comes out. Going back to the miniseries, it would also just inexplicably go away at the most nonsensical of times. For example, in this scene, Pennywise shows up in the showers to scare Eddie, and as soon as he shows his teeth, the scene just cuts or rather dissolves away.

I mean, why the hell would you do that? What’s even the point of staging a scene like this if you’re not going to give it the necessary payoff instead of leaving you frightened as a scene like this would it just leaves you feeling confused? Now, it’s important to note that the series is not entirely devoid of scary scenes, as they were a couple involving the adults. But again, I’ll compare those with the next movie. Now, if there is one thing I will award in the miniseries favor, it is tone. It had an identity and although it wasn’t very coherent, it was tonally consistent. The movie, however, had three scenes that were really out of place. Suddenly, without warning or reason, some pop song suddenly came on. I not only do they feel wrong, but throughout their duration they inexplicably made the movie feel dated. In fact, is downright mind boggling as to how a movie that has been crafted with this much skill ended up making a creative choice that even an amateur filmmaker would have deemed as inappropriate. And the final thing that really pissed me off is the way the movie handles the death of the bullies. There is a scene where one of the bullies is separated from his group and he goes into the sewer to catch the kids. After a bit of build up, Pennywise shows up and kills them. And instead of showing us the bully die in detail like we got see with Georgie, it just cuts away.

Now, the scene was well shot and handled, but what I don’t get is why the hell would this movie show a kid gets all Benoff? But when the asshole murderous bully gets killed off, it happens off screen. I mean, no, that is not on. You don’t set the tone at the beginning of the movie and then resort to some PG 13 bullshit like that. That is unacceptable. So, yeah, the movie most certainly isn’t devoid of having problems, too. But it was about 20 minutes into the movie when it became clear to me that it made the miniseries look like a comedy. Seriously, the scares in the movie are far superior to the miniseries. And I’m not just talking the more expensive scares I’m referring to, the smaller scale scares, too. Even they were far more effective than anything the miniseries had to offer. And Bill calls God’s awesome performance really elevated the movie and made it all the more terrifying. So yeah, if you couldn’t tell, the movie is far superior with regards to horror. The best way I can describe the IT remake is with three words, the real deal, the scary scenes are actually intentionally scary and not comical like they are in the series. Speaking of which, the miniseries was already pretty funny and hard to take seriously as it was after watching the remake is made the miniseries look even funnier and tamer, not to mention the series is just so boring.

A bloody snail would be able to complete a marathon in the time it takes for this series to tell a story. The movie’s piece, however, is very energetic and actually fuels you, whereas the miniseries just drains you also. It’s very rare that I praise the music in a horror movie, but it was absolutely fantastic and very unique in his execution. Now, I must reiterate, there are plenty of things I really liked in the miniseries to the kids I thought were really good. The humor was pretty much always on point. And of course, Tim Curry was a ton of fun. Every time he was on screen, he just wasn’t scary. But the fact remains, if you want to watch a more accurate retelling of the story, as it was meant to be told, you will have a hard time beating the remake. It told a story coherently. The scares were effective. And when it was over, I actually felt like watching it again. This truly is a horror movie that must be witnessed on the biggest and loudest screen possible and is definitely going to have a place on my list of best films of the year. It’s time for the scores. The mini series gets a below average four out of 10 and the remake gets a very strong eight. Although the miniseries hasn’t aged well, it was great for his time and it was very impactful and I will always respect it for that.

But what also really surprised me about the movie is that it’s a horror remake and it was good. I was afraid that it was going to end up like the Elm Street remake of Friday the 13th Halloween and the Poltergeist, etc., but it didn’t it had a lot of genuine effort put into it. And not only did it work, but is paying off really well for the studio. Hopefully this will make them realize that even with horror movies, the better the quality, the more likely will pay for a ticket. So that’s it for this versus video, if you like it, please give it a thumbs up. And if you haven’t already, feel free to subscribe to my channel for more of us. His videos. Also, whilst I was making this video, my channel surpassed 15000 subscribers. Thank you all so much for watching and for your continuous support, whether it be through sharing my videos through Patreon or simply by watching and giving them a thumbs up. I really appreciate all of it. Please share as much of my verses videos as you can, because as soon as I reach 20000 subscribers, I will take the plunge and make the video you have all wanted me to do for such a long time. I will finally begin production on Ghostbusters vs. the Ghostbusters remake and I’m going to rip that movie a new one. So thank you very much. As always, watching guys. And I’ll catch all of you next time. Take care.