WeirdRaptor's Quasi-Non-Spoiler review:
I liked it.
Overall, I thought this was a really good movie, but it should have been a great movie, but it wasn't. But therein lies the problem with even trying to adapt King. He writes good books without a second thought to how Hollywood can cope with his prose.
I'll rewatch it in theaters now that I know what to expect, but I really did enjoy my experience (or at least as much as one can when there's a constant feeling of unease and impending dread during it). Bill Skarsgard was PERFECTION ACHIEVED as Pennywise, but I feel he should have been in a bit more of the film, or maybe not. I don't know. Maybe they made the right call by using him as sparingly they did and I'm just being fussy.
There was a lot of heart, all of the characters were as likeable or hate-able as they needed to be and the scares were good. It wasn't really a jumpscare-fest. The horror was based more around an intensely uncomfortable feeling of unease and impending sense of doom.
Anyway, the kids were good. Real good. The adult actors who star in the next one have big shoes to fill. ...Never though I'd say that of adult actors instead of the kid ones. Apart from downplaying a couple members of the The Loser's Club, this was real good.
The downside. Sadly, it was not as close to the book as I would have liked considering that the advertisements made it look like this was going to be very close to the source. They really downplay the Lovecraftian angle from the book, at least for now. They could reinstate the stranger things about the story in the sequel. Here's hoping.
As of right now, I give a 7.5-8/10.