Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.
Watching “IT: Chapter 2” was a pretty monumental moment for me. “IT” (2017) was my first ever film review where I had to buy a ticket to watch it. Now, I was being invited as press to Chapter 2 so you can tell I was excited about this one. I really enjoyed the first rendition, therefore, it is going to be tough to not compare the two films. I will say while Chapter 2 doesn’t live up to its predecessor, I fairly enjoyed the Stephen King film.
James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone, Jay Ryan, and Andy Bean play the older Losers Club, 27 years after the events of the Summer of 1989. Pennywise has returned to Derry drawing the group back to not only stop the evil again but to end it once and for all. The adult cast does a great job of following up the young Losers Club. Bill Hader steals the show every time, similar to Finn Wolfhard, as Richie as his character is not only the comedic relief but now is faced with more personal issues. To be frank, I did feel like most of the older characters tended to have childish characteristics at times, which just came off as lazy. I would have loved to see more growth from these roles because it just feels like they were portrayed that way to stay true to how they behaved when they were younger. The best part of the film, however, is when we cut from the older Losers to the younger versions. A lot of gaps were filled with these scenes but it also brought back the magic of the Losers Club. I do feel like the chemistry was lacking from the older Losers compared to the younger ones but that is expected when they had been separated for so long.
My biggest issue with the film happens to come from the script. I think it stems from the movie having too much it wants to dive into. The first chapter was just about kids who were being haunted by Pennywise with little subplots here and there. The second chapter, however, is that plus how their lives are now and discovering how to defeat Pennywise. Therefore, the overall story moments don’t feel as fluid and connected because there is just so much story to tell. Another thing that bothered me was just how little Pennywise there is until about halfway into the movie. The best part of the first film was Bill Skarsgård’s clown so already the omission of him in Chapter 2 is not a recipe for success. Speaking on the first half, this film takes a while to get going and could honestly lose a ton of audience members early on. I admit that to say, I was never really bored throughout but there were some dull moments in the almost three-hour runtime.
Andy Muschietti returns to direct Chapter 2 and he does an okay job. I do think the scares in this one were lackluster and obvious. The great thing about the new “IT” films are that the scenes of horror are almost action set pieces but these ones just didn’t bring the scares. The score is still chilling and the cinematography is top-notch. The set pieces are well crafted but that is what you expect from a film of this budget. All in all, Muschietti does what he needs to do for the most part.
If you were looking forward to watching this film, I will not deter you. Good performances, especially from Hader, decent scares, but a story that bites off more than it can chew. If you have three free hours, feel free to check this out.
In Theaters Friday, September 6th
