Georgie boat scene (SPOILERS)

It just shows how messed up the adults are in Derry and that the adults will look away. And if I remember correctly from reading the book, IT/Pennywise has them under some spell or hypnosis or possessed them so they don't see what's really going on. They actually do this again later on when Henry is carving an "H" into Ben's stomach. A few adults drive by in a car and just keep driving and don't stop to help Ben, although they are looking right at them. We then see the red balloon pop up in the backseat of the car. So IT/Pennywise is manipulating them to not help out or do anything. They are just letting IT/Pennywise do his thing. Maybe someone else whose read the book a few times can explain this better but it's something like that. Oh and then there is also that Bev's dad can't see the blood all over the bathroom, so IT/Pennywise is manipulating him also.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

I believe that when the characters take on IT/Pennywise when they are adults and are actually killing him for good, they manage to snap all the adults and citizens of Derry out of whatever IT/Pennywsie is doing to them. Not sure if the sequel will go there though. But the sequel is supposed to explore the origin of IT/Pennywise.

It didnt strike me the same way. What left me a bit curious is to what happened once the old lady saw the street covered with blood where the boy was kneeling by the sewer.
I was a bit surprised that the lady didnt seem a bit more curious as to why the boy was kneeling down staring into the sewer and talking to someone (unseen).
If I saw that, I might call out to him and ask what he was doing or see if he had lost something (which he had). I would also be very concerned about a boy in the street where he could get hit by a car.
Something like that would just seem "odd" to me and I might pay closer attention than she did and try to intervene for the child's safety. Needless to say, the incident wouldn't go unnoticed like it did with her.
THAT is MY reaction to that scene.

I saw it differently. The old lady saw him there by the sewer and I assume the hard rain prevented her from hearing he was talking to someone; the old lady didn't see what happened - the cat did. The old lady did see the blood. It's assumed that she called for emergency personnel (at least that's how I saw it). I see it this way because in a later scene Bill is in the garage with his Dad trying to explain how Georgie could have gone thru the system and come out somewhere - that scene only makes sense if they KNOW that Georgie disappeared down the sewer drain, thus the need for someone to witness he was at the sewer and then blood at the sewer. If no one witness him there; it could have been assumed that a stranger may have taken him that may have been driving by.

The scene was perfect! I was explaining to my teen about the town and how adults ignored what was going on around them. I explained the history of IT. He hasn't read the book and I wanted him to have the back story in case the movie left it out. So that cut away scene made perfect sense. My son caught it too and glanced at me for a second quietly saying "oh your right!!"

I personally could not be more satisfied with this scene. The novel and 1990 version aside, I assumed the trailers had shown everything (or gave you the basic idea) there was to see from that scene. Obviously I know what's going to happen, but what did surprised and impressed me - and fortunately I kept myself from watching the clips released online - was how this turned out to be a fuller and more sinister scene than I had expected. The acting, build up, and ultimately IT tearing Georgie and taking him away was downright chilling.

As for cutting away to the older lady and her cat, I won't deny that it does take you out of the intense moment. Yet, I don't think it was unnecessary. Although it seems as though the lady genuinely didn't see or hear what was happening, as everyone else has said her purpose in the scene was to show how the adults were made to look away as they were being affected by It. 'It' was a bit of a surprising decision and I appreciated. This is a wicked good scene overall.

The reason they kept showing adults is to show how cowardly and uninvolved they were when they see sobering strange or even bullying before them, they see no evil, and hear no evil.

I thought you were going to mention how, at one point, it seemed the boat was going against the flow of the water. That bothered me.

But then in the full movie that I finally saw, there's this god damn difference in that scene where half way in, it CUTS to this old woman and her cat living in the house that is just infront of where Georgie is talking into the sewer drain to Pennywise.