NEW REVIEW: "IT: Chapter Two" (2019)

MRMOVIESETC REVIEWS:

“IT: Chapter Two” (2019)

"No one who dies here ever really dies."

WARNING: This review contains exceptions and excuses that would normally not be awarded to other films.

I thought I should get that out there, because it’s bound to come up one way or another.

***

It’s a strange feeling to me to have been this excited for a new horror film, especially seeing as that hardly ever happens anymore. I was literally counting down the days over the past few months for September 5^th to finally arrive so I could channel my inner, younger dork and go see a scary movie late at night. Yet, at the same time, the Voice of Reason in the back of head told me to keep some reasonable expectations for reasons we Stephen King fans already know well enough – the second half of “IT” just isn’t the greatest.

I’m of the mindset that, going clear back to the novel, “IT” could have ended with the kids. Don’t get me wrong, the adult side of the story has its positives in both the book and the miniseries, but to consider how good the first half is, the same tricks are not as effective from the grown-up perspective. It didn’t work great then, so it didn’t shock or disappoint me that this half, once again, still fell short in some areas with the same old issues. That being said, Director Andy Muschietti (returning from “Chapter One”) and a ridiculously well-placed cast –more on that later – did the best they could with what they had to work with. “IT” may be iconic, and for good reason, but it has flaws and it always has.

“Chapter Two” picks up twenty-seven-years after the events of “Chapter One”, where Mike (Isaiah Mustafa), whom never left Derry after the events of the first film, has been slightly obsessive in his quest to figure what Pennywise/IT is and where he/it came from. After doing some snooping around and discovering that Pennywise has returned as promised and is up to his old murdering ways, he calls in the Losers Club to enforce the promise they all made back when they were kids.

The film offers a brief look into the lives of the now fully grown Losers, and soon, Billy (James McAvoy), Beverly (Jessica Chastain), Richie (Bill Hader), Ben (Jay Ryan), and Eddie (James Ransone), make their return to Derry confused as to why Mike has called them there. Due to some strange cosmic occurrence, or perhaps their own mental repression, all the Losers that left town cannot really remember anything that happened while they lived there – good and bad.

When Mike finally tells the rest of the gang why he summoned them back to Hell, naturally most become terrified and/or pissed off and immediately try to get back out of town faster than they arrived - except for Bill. Bill still appears to be suffering from a deeply-seeded guilt from feeling responsible for the death of his little brother Georgie because he feigned illness that left Georgie one-on-one with Pennywise. Between Bill being the former leader of the group, and Beverly revealing that she’s been having premonitions about all their deaths due to having contact with Pennywise back in the sewer all those years ago, they all reluctantly stay and hear out Mike’s plan to use the ancient “Ritual of Chud” to destroy the evil entity that is Pennywise.

According to Mike, the only way for this to work is for the Losers Club to split up and find important “tokens” from their childhood that can be brought together to strengthen the ritual. Sure enough, as each member of the Club branches out, Pennywise reveals himself to all of them. This time, since the Losers are no longer kids, he seems less interested in so much scaring them by triggering the innermost fears, but instead, taunting their innermost insecurities in an effort to ultimately drive each Loser to their death, mostly by insanity; a feat that he successfully achieved with Stanley (Andy Bean) prior to the Derry reunion. Through these fears and reopened wounds from old skeletons in the closet, each Loser find themselves inadvertently on a journey of self-healing on the road to one final Battle Royale with Pennywise.

In a lot of ways, again, hearkening back to pre-viewing expectations, I’m pretty content with the decisions made with the storytelling in this film. It’s not entirely faithful to the novel, but nor is it completely unfaithful. Yes, it’s true that the pacing isn’t perfect, particularly in the shifts between present and past, but personally, I loved the incorporation of flashbacks that filled in some holes and created some new scenes not found in “Chapter One”. Of course these snippets in time present occurrences and character traits already learned in the first movie, though from where I sit, that was a necessary move to enhance the plight of the adult characters whom have never been more interesting than the kids. Granted, with some of the changes in story arcs for each character and the cuts back and forth, Muschietti was able to use that as a good excuse to make this cut almost three hours long so he could try and enrich material that is already weaker by default.

Honing in on that topic for a second, I’ve been reading and watching a lot of fans of the first movie whom said that they really felt this runtime, and not in a good way. I frankly did not have that experience. The pacing isn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but to me, “Chapter Two” didn’t feel grueling or really any longer than “Avengers: Endgame”. Admittedly, there’s not a ton of story or extra character development in this film, yet it still manages to feel like it went by decently fast for its long runtime. I had heard some rumors that Muschietti has a four-hour cut of this film out there somewhere, and I sincerely hope that’s true, because, if anything, this film’s plot could have used some cleaning up and expansion to drive the stake in a little deeper.

Switching gears over to the acting now – my god – this is hands down the best ensemble casting I have seen made perhaps in my lifetime. Not only for their acting abilities, though they all do a fantastic job with Hader and Skarsgard being the standouts, but also with how well they line up with their younger version counterparts. I don’t know right off hand what awards are out there for casting, but give all of them to this crew. Good grief, it’s the closest thing to perfection as one film is likely to ever get.

I also appreciated how the character screentime had better balance in this one. In the first film, Mike and Stanley especially, got pushed to the back. This time, each character had a more important part to play to start tying up all the loose ends. Hell, if anyone got it shorter, it was Skarsgard; then, that does line up with the book and the mini-series pretty well.

In terms of the scariness scale, no, “Chapter 2” doesn’t have nearly as much going for that as “Chapter One”. I am sure I’m starting to sound like a broken record at this point, but I wasn’t expecting a lot of scares because the first adaptation wasn’t and nor was the book – blah blah blah. However, I did still have a need to see some modest creepiness and suspense, and I did get both of those. There is a heavier use of CGI monsters in this one, and I will say some of them were not great. I appreciated the good intentions, but like the hatching fortune cookies in the First Act for instance, some were snicker-worthy. The rest were, for the most part, creative and well-executed for the sake of jump scares.

Sadly, the Ending, which I won’t spoil though I’m sure most of you already know what happens, doesn’t get much improvement over what has been attempted in the past, and honestly, was just as anti-climactic here. Obviously, with a better budget and technological advancements over the last thirty years, it sure looks better than before, but that only carries it so far. I won’t say more than that, but if I could pick only one thing to be most disappointed about with “Chapter Two”, it was the resolution of the final fight; although, the rest of the scene was pretty entertaining. I don’t know, maybe “too easy” is the phrase I’m looking for.

Anyway, I feel I could write a review half-as-long as the novel, but I think I’ll end it here. “IT: Chapter Two” is going to divide audiences and fans of the book even more than the first film did. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it as much as “Chapter One”, so I didn’t feel any letdown. I think what the film did well, it did very well, and that’s what is going to stick with me the most.

Putting both films together, I have to say that Andy Muschietti did one Hell of a great job adapting a gargantuan novel, from one of the biggest novelists of all time, and did it perhaps the best justice that any filmmaker is going to be able to. It’s far from perfect, “Chapter Two” shouldering most of that blame, but this is a set of films I know I’m going to enjoy watching for years to come.

“IT: Chapter Two”: 7.5/10


**Before I forget: Stephen King's cameo in this film is one of the funniest cameos I've seen in years. Loved it!**