Certificate: 15
Running time: 169 minutes
Starring: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Skarsgård, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer
Directed by: Andy Muschetti
The story: Twenty seven years after battling the demonic clown Pennywise, a group of friends are forced to return to their childhood home town of Derry, Maine to confront him once again.
The verdict: It (2017) was the highest grossing horror film of all time, so of course there could be no doubt that a sequel would be imminent and that it would be highly anticipated. When a film has been massively successful, a sequel can be tricky to navigate and often sequels don’t live up to the original film. So the question is, is It Chapter Two as good as It? And my answer would have to be no it isn’t.
Before we get into what makes It Chapter Two disappointing compared to its predecessor, let’s look at what was good. And in spite of its flaws, there was a lot that was good about this film.
Firstly, the cast and performances were great. The cast members that have joined to play the now older members of The Losers Club (Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Issiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone and Andy Bean) were all perfectly cast. They have all managed to embody the characteristics of their younger selves really well, so that they are still recognisable as the characters that audiences liked so much in the first film. There are plenty of flashbacks in the film, so we still see the younger characters and again these were all great performances. The chemistry between the characters feels natural and in any scene where they are together as a group enhances that scene. And of course when talking about performances, you can’t not mention Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. He brings a wonderful and terrifying physicality to his performance and he has truly made the role his own.
Technically, It Chapter Two is brilliant. The score by Benjamin Wallfisch hits all the right notes and enhances every scene - whether it’s building the tension or increasing the most horrific moments. There are some really cool shots and some awesome transitions, especially in the first act. And the overall look of the film is constant throughout - It Chapter Two makes use of traditional horror visuals but has added moments of lurid colour that sets it apart from other horror films. Also the technique used to de-age the younger actors to match how they looked in the first film was amazing.
Another thing I really liked about It Chapter Two was that it was engaging throughout. When I first saw the running time of the film, I did worry that it would be way too long and I have seen some people say that they felt the film was too long. However, I felt that it was constantly engaging and there weren’t any particularly dull or slow paced moments. There was also a brilliant cameo that I won’t say much about.
So that was the good stuff and like I said before, there was a lot of positive aspects about this film. That being said, there was also a lot that I didn’t like about this film. The main problem for me was the narrative of the film and the structure. The film starts well with a straightforward narrative but soon it becomes disjointed and almost like an anthology of different jump scares - there are a number of scary set pieces but they don’t match up and these scary scenes seem to come to an abrupt end, meaning that every time the horror and tension is increased, it is soon lost and so the film loses momentum. The added storyline of bully Henry Bowers back and doing Pennywise’s bidding also contributed very little to the film and felt superfluous, again causing the film to lose momentum.
Another problem for me, that relates to narrative and story, was some of the plot choices. For example, there is a horrifying instance of homophobic abuse in the film as well as other scenes of abuse and bullying. None of these events are ever addressed or resolved and whilst I can understand that there may be underlying messages behind these moments and what they represent. There was something about them that felt very uncomfortable and presented a strange moral to the audience - the good guys are murdered/terrorised by a demonic clown whilst the a**holes of the world go about their merry lives.
The other problem with this instalment was that Pennywise just couldn’t quite match up to how incredibly terrifying he was in the first film. Don’t get me wrong - he’s still freaking scary. But in the screening I was in, people were laughing at the horror rather than hiding from it. I know that some people just react like that to horror but it felt like a negative thing rather than just a natural reaction. By the time it is the big finale, the horror feels bog standard and there is not much to excite and terrify the audience. In fact, the climax of the film does feel a bit anticlimactic. I couldn’t help but feel that it negated a lot of what had happened earlier in the film. This is an even bigger problem when a film has a running time of 169 minutes - that’s a lot of minutes that have now not meant much.
Overall, though it is by no means a bad film, It Chapter Two just doesn’t have quite the same impact as the first one. It is engaging and watchable and the first act is great. But the disjointed narrative and weaker second and third acts mean that the film didn’t live up to expectations.
The rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ and a half.
Before we get into what makes It Chapter Two disappointing compared to its predecessor, let’s look at what was good. And in spite of its flaws, there was a lot that was good about this film.
Firstly, the cast and performances were great. The cast members that have joined to play the now older members of The Losers Club (Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Issiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone and Andy Bean) were all perfectly cast. They have all managed to embody the characteristics of their younger selves really well, so that they are still recognisable as the characters that audiences liked so much in the first film. There are plenty of flashbacks in the film, so we still see the younger characters and again these were all great performances. The chemistry between the characters feels natural and in any scene where they are together as a group enhances that scene. And of course when talking about performances, you can’t not mention Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. He brings a wonderful and terrifying physicality to his performance and he has truly made the role his own.
Technically, It Chapter Two is brilliant. The score by Benjamin Wallfisch hits all the right notes and enhances every scene - whether it’s building the tension or increasing the most horrific moments. There are some really cool shots and some awesome transitions, especially in the first act. And the overall look of the film is constant throughout - It Chapter Two makes use of traditional horror visuals but has added moments of lurid colour that sets it apart from other horror films. Also the technique used to de-age the younger actors to match how they looked in the first film was amazing.
Another thing I really liked about It Chapter Two was that it was engaging throughout. When I first saw the running time of the film, I did worry that it would be way too long and I have seen some people say that they felt the film was too long. However, I felt that it was constantly engaging and there weren’t any particularly dull or slow paced moments. There was also a brilliant cameo that I won’t say much about.
So that was the good stuff and like I said before, there was a lot of positive aspects about this film. That being said, there was also a lot that I didn’t like about this film. The main problem for me was the narrative of the film and the structure. The film starts well with a straightforward narrative but soon it becomes disjointed and almost like an anthology of different jump scares - there are a number of scary set pieces but they don’t match up and these scary scenes seem to come to an abrupt end, meaning that every time the horror and tension is increased, it is soon lost and so the film loses momentum. The added storyline of bully Henry Bowers back and doing Pennywise’s bidding also contributed very little to the film and felt superfluous, again causing the film to lose momentum.
Another problem for me, that relates to narrative and story, was some of the plot choices. For example, there is a horrifying instance of homophobic abuse in the film as well as other scenes of abuse and bullying. None of these events are ever addressed or resolved and whilst I can understand that there may be underlying messages behind these moments and what they represent. There was something about them that felt very uncomfortable and presented a strange moral to the audience - the good guys are murdered/terrorised by a demonic clown whilst the a**holes of the world go about their merry lives.
The other problem with this instalment was that Pennywise just couldn’t quite match up to how incredibly terrifying he was in the first film. Don’t get me wrong - he’s still freaking scary. But in the screening I was in, people were laughing at the horror rather than hiding from it. I know that some people just react like that to horror but it felt like a negative thing rather than just a natural reaction. By the time it is the big finale, the horror feels bog standard and there is not much to excite and terrify the audience. In fact, the climax of the film does feel a bit anticlimactic. I couldn’t help but feel that it negated a lot of what had happened earlier in the film. This is an even bigger problem when a film has a running time of 169 minutes - that’s a lot of minutes that have now not meant much.
Overall, though it is by no means a bad film, It Chapter Two just doesn’t have quite the same impact as the first one. It is engaging and watchable and the first act is great. But the disjointed narrative and weaker second and third acts mean that the film didn’t live up to expectations.
The rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ and a half.
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