It Chapter 2

It Chapter 2 is the continuation of Stephen King’s novel. As you may or may not know, the book is quite lengthy, so the filmmakers chose to divide it into 2 films, the first primarily focusing on the kids who encounter the shape-shifting entity Pennywise, while the 2^nd focused on them as adults who come back to Derry to destroy Pennywise once and for all.

The story starts years later, with the losers as adults living in different parts of the country, expect for Mike, who’s stayed on in Derry. After the return of Pennywise, Mike calls them all back to return to Derry to once and for all destroy the entity that traumatized their childhood.

Once again Andy Muschietti is back as the director. I personally wasn’t too keen on him as his style left the first film void of any real, effective scares, which, for a horror film, is an issue. Despite that, I still enjoyed the first film due to the great cast of kids and Bill Skarsgard’s terrific turn as Pennywise. He’s definitely made the killer clown iconic for a new generation of fans.

As for the 2^nd film, though the first several scenes are quite faithful to the novel, the film quickly becomes unbelievably silly due to the over-abundance of CGI monsters. Muschietti clearly does not understand the value of subtlety, turning many scenes into loud, CGI filled spectacles that fail to do the one thing they should, which is scare. There’s one sequence in particular that takes place in a restaurant that’s so over-the-top and ridiculous, featuring badly rendered CGI creatures coming out of fortune cookies, that many of the audience members were laughing.

As for the cast, they are all good actors but aren’t given much to work with. Bill Hader and James Ransone as Richie and Eddie were the comic relief, especially Hader, who’s Richie has grown up to be a stand-up comedian. I found most of his jokes and lines just jarring and mostly killed any tension that should’ve been present. By the end of the film, Hader does get a chance to shine as he shows his trauma coming through, but the film spends so much time on his comedic façade and not enough insight into his pain that the big revelation at the end falls flat and doesn’t deliver the emotional punch it should have.

Bill Skarsgard is once again great as Pennywise, but his scenes are less in this film, which is a shame, because the few scenes he does have are terrific and showcase his wonderfully creepy performance, even scarier this time than the first outing. An early scene where he kills a victim of a gay bashing who was tossed into a river, another where he kills a little girl underneath baseball bleachers, and one in a funhouse are all effectively chilling. I wish the film had shown more of those type of scenes instead of the CGI overload we got that ruined many of the others. One of the most memorable scenes from the book, where Beverly goes to her old home and meets an elderly resident, starts off good but quickly turns ridiculous.

The ending deviates from the novel, and while the concept was good, the execution was kind of silly. They way they defeat is Pennywise…… **SPOILERS**

 

 

They basically make him small by bullying him, calling him names, insulting him, etc. Then they take out his heart and crush it with their hands. While that effectively showcases how they overcame their trauma and overpowered a bully, the scene with Pennywise turning into a deflated little creature was mostly laughable.

This movie is just ok, less interesting than the first outing, too long, overly reliant on CGI, less scenes with Pennywise, and less time spent fleshing out the adults and giving the actors a real chance to shine. Out of all the adult losers, I felt that only Isaiah Mustafa as Mike was effective and memorable. The rest of them, like the film itself, become quickly forgettable.