I rather badly want this movie to not suck. I mean, I REALLY want this movie not to suck. IT is maybe the best Stephen King book I’ve ever read.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10gfbsXSf2k
But it could suck. And that’s what worries me. The casting looks good, but the entire first movie is literally about children being menaced and threatened, which is pretty raw stuff for modern audiences (even if they take out That Scene From The Book). But if the movie hesitates on putting those kids through the wringer, it’s going to suck. Horribly.
Please God, don’t let it suck.
A) Steven King has vocally taken sides in the culture wars so F*ck him and anything that profits him.
B) this movie isn’t ‘It’. Only half the story is being told with the rest being saved for the unmentioned but fully planned sequel. I have a few problems with multi-part films but not marketing incomplete work clearly is a crass money grab. Harry Potter – Deathly Hallows, Hunger Games – Mockingjay, popular books filmed and MARKETED as Part 1. It isn’t.
I must respectfully disagree with you on parts of both halves of your comment.
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Yeah, Stephen King’s politics are not mine. Yeah, Stephen King can be a real jerk about it. I’ll still read his stuff (minus Dark Tower, which I never liked), and I’ll still go to movies based on his work (same exemption). He’s one of our greatest living storytellers. It would be a shame to deprive myself of a good time just because someone else is a putz.
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(I call this the “Joss Whedon Memorial Rule of Cheerful Ignorance.” Yes, I know. I’m workshopping better names.)
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As for your second point, fair enough…that seems a little scuzzy. But then again, the DVD edition of the old “It” miniseries that I have, the one with Tim Curry, was so long that it had to be broadcast on two nights and put on a double-sided DVD. And it still left out some of the best parts of the book.
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So while I’m not happy with the marketing, I’m actually happy with the strategy. There’s more than enough in “It” for three films, if you get right down to it. Truncating it to one 2:15 movie would leave out so much that it wouldn’t even really be worth seeing. In my humble, fan-of-the-novel opinion.
Your first point – I’ll still read and watch things King has a hand in, I just won’t pay for it. Plenty of ways around that nowadays, some of them even legal. Digression on this – SK is the example I’ve used for years to make a point about marginal and discretionary spending, long/short spend dollars with the people who dollars matter to.
Second point – not an argument as we seem to agree, but was it only a two night broadcast? I won’t bet on it now, but i remember it being like The Stand – a four night sweeps week extravaganza, which with commercials cuts down to under 6 hours, your aforementioned double sided dvd.
( yes, I know the Internet Has answers. But as i preach to my wife and kids, Mental Exercises don’t hurt, and knowing how to find the right answer is good, Knoweing the right answer is better.)