It: Chapter 2
Directed by Andy Muschietti
Oh wow, I’m actually covering a movie that came out recently?!? What a bizarre turn of events. Seriously though, I was kind of excited to see It Chapter 2, I wasn’t the biggest fan of It (2017) but I enjoyed it enough and I was interested in seeing what this nearly 3 hours long beast of a sequel would do to follow up one of the more successful Stephen King adaptations I’ve seen. It: Chapter 2 does a lot of things right, but it unfortunately also manages to do a lot of things wrong too.
I’m not trying to say it was terrible or anything, It 2 has a lot going for it, but the biggest problem it has it that it is a sequel that doesn’t add very much to the previous film. Before I get too far in I’ll sum up the premise of the film, after the events of the first film the Losers grow up and go their separate ways, only to be called back to Derry, when it appears that Pennywise has returned to wreak havoc on the town once more. The Losers reunite, rekindle old relationships, and generally deal with issues everyone assumed were resolved by the previous film.
Who Would Have Thought Childhood Trauma Stays With You?
Light spoilers but BIll is still dealing with the death of his brother, Ben is still dealing with being an overweight child, and so on. It makes a lot of the movie feel like a retread of the first film, but I think I might actually like that aspect. Not everyone gets over their childhood traumas, sometimes even beating the shit out of a monster clown doesn’t help, couple that with returning to the scene of their pain AND having Pennywise intentionally trying to renew these fears and it all kind of makes sense why everyone seems to be regressing. I have no problem with that aspect, though it can make the movie feel a bit long when everyone has to have their scene when they reestablish what their childhood trauma was.
These 3 Hours Didn’t Go By As Slow As I Feared
Speaking of length, I didn’t mind the close to 3-hour runtime, but I think that’s more to do with the fact that the pacing was generally quick and scenes typically didn’t outstay their welcome. One notable exception to that is all the footage reused from the first film which…come on, the first It was a huge hit! It was just re-released, twice in fact! We all remember the iconic scenes from it! There was no need to squeeze in scenes from another 2.5-hour movie to pad out this 2.5+ hour movie, and if someone in the audience didn’t see the first one and can’t figure out what’s happening through context clues, well that shouldn’t be everyone else’s problem.
Really Good Horror-Imagination Visuals
Helping the pacing was the incredibly fun horror visuals, which to me were what really sold the movie as being a worthwhile experience. As in It, the visual style captures something that is essentially King, bizarre creations that seem to tiptoe along the line between horror and comedy, and are only more effective because of how they teeter on the edge and settle on being creepy, rather than campy. I was always looking forward to the next scare scene and that’s partially because, following the tradition of the first film, the giant CGI mayhem thrown at your face was usually great fun, even if it makes the movie more like a house-of-horrors type funhouse rather than the gripping psychological drama/horror it may have been going for.
Pleasantly Surprised By The Performances
I don’t mean to criticize the performances. Pretty much everyone is at least passable, weirdly enough it seems that every time there’s an adaptation of ‘It’, the kids always wind up as the more impressive actors, but that isn’t a knock on the cast of It: Chapter 2. James McAvoy is good because…well he’s James McAvoy, dude’s an acting machine. The real surprise though is David Hader, who brings a lot of depth and sincerity to his role as Richie ‘Trashmouth’ Tozier, even when the script can’t quite match his performance. I am also very happy to announce that Bill Skarsgard seems to be in much more of the movie now and actually has a chance to act, unlike the first film where it seemed 90% of his performance was done via CGI, so that’s a step up. The rest of the cast didn’t leave a huge impression on me, but I can’t single out anyone as bad. Most everyone is just kind of dour.
Darker? Sure. Edgier? Definitely. Better? Ehhh…..
Speaking of that, a big deal was made in the marketing of how this new chapter of It was much darker and more serious than the first film and yeah, that’s true, but I don’t much see how that is an improvement. Considering that the literal first scene of this movie is gay-bashing, one featuring characters who are not established and which the perpetrators of this awful crime are never seen again or punished, it raises a few questions for me about just how artful this darkness is handled. Yes, hate crimes are awful and disgusting. We have those in real life. We don’t need to bring them into a movie about a monster clown who does just fine on his own without screaming homophobic epithets. It felt especially jarring given how schlocky a lot of the horror later on in the film feels, and there are a few other equally ‘dark’ scenes but I don’t think any of them were more effective than the more suggestive rather than explicit sequences in the first film.
It: Chapter 2 Is Definitely Fun, And Its Flaws Don’t Kill It.
It: Chapter 2 is kind of a mixed bag. There’s a lot of good stuff here, good acting, god horror set pieces, and even good pacing, but there’s a lot that also drags it down and stops It from reaching its full potential. At nearing 3 hours it does feel a bit overlong and the retreads of characters, though often appropriate, get kind of old quickly. I’ve heard a lot of people say they were disappointed by It: Chapter 2, but I can’t really say that. I enjoyed It: Chapter 2 for what it was, and if you liked the first one or aren’t intimidated by the length, I’d say give it a try, I think you’ll enjoy it.
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