I watched this Friday on my day off. Very quickly:
I thought the visuals were great. I agree with a poster above that it could have been 20-30 minutes shorter. Acting in the first 20-30 minutes was weak and felt like a made-for-TV movie but eventually it settled into a decent pace.
WARNING: "Plot considerations marked as a precaution!" spoilers below
There were a few very interesting, but ultimately useless red herrings. My feelings are either expand on them or remove them to save on run time. Sadly, they were more interesting that what is really going on in the story.
There were a few very interesting, but ultimately useless red herrings. My feelings are either expand on them or remove them to save on run time. Sadly, they were more interesting that what is really going on in the story.
Acting was average but, surprisingly, Bill Hader saved the movie for me. Several times! I did not care much for the ending and while the attention given to the individual characters was nice, it ran on far too long and quickly felt like a modern effects version of
A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors. That is not a bad thing, mind you. Encounters were mostly fun, but it did feel a bit predictable and rehashed after a while. Oddly enough, there was a shot near the end of the movie showing an old movie reader board listing
A Nightmare on Elm Street playing in the Derry theater. Huh...
All in all it was still fun, especially with Hader's control of humor helping to break the dry acting and sometimes awkward story. Obviously watch it if you invested into the first chapter. I've never read a King book and never really had interest but watching this movie made me question, several times, that if this (and most any other movie adaptation except for
The Shining) is representative of the stories he writes, then I don't get it.