Review:
*Originally written September 9th, 2019*
The last time the latter half of the IT book was adapted for the screen it was a bit of a disaster. The 1990 miniseries/TV film starts of very strong, but once it focused on The Losers Club as adults, it loses all its momentum and falls flat in one of the most laughable and poorly executed film endings I can think of. So there was a lot of worry going into this, despite IT being quite an excellent horror film from 2 years ago that massively improved on the 1990 adaptation as it blended horror, comedy and drama in a way that led to surprising success.
Due to the success of the previous film, Chapter 2 was no doubt going to happen. This time however, it is a lot more self-indulgent and excessive. While it certainly improves in some areas of the previous film, it definitely falters and has its problems. It's not a complete mess though, as this concluding chapter of the story between The Losers Club and Pennywise is a mostly successful and satisfying finale to the series.
Picking up 27 years after they defeated Pennywise in the '80s, The Losers Club are reunited in 2016 as Pennywise returns for his annual spree of murder and mayhem as they swore an oath to destroy him if he came back. As they all return to their hometown of Derry, the group slowly get their lost traumatic memories back of their experience as they need to overcome them and put an end to psychotic clown once and for all.
What concerned me most with this sequel was its run-time. Rarely do horror films go to the lengths of nearly being 3 hours, which is the length of the entire miniseries that told both half of the books. While it certainly helped to have more time to explore The Losers Club as adults, the run-time is definitely excessive and bloated. While it does move at quite a smooth pace, you do start to feel those 170 minutes overall. With a film of this length, it could have committed to exploring the group as adults a lot more, but it really feels like a lot of this is padded out with flashbacks to them as children, which honestly just feels like a series of deleted scenes from the first added in.
The new adult Losers Club all do a great job with their roles. Bill Hader in particular is given the most personality as a grown up Richie, who was gone on to become a successful stand-up comedian. Hader is a actor who has rarely impressed me until he did the HBO show Barry, which is immensely worth seeing, but still, it amazes me he managed to outshine both James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain. Who both give strong performances, but are very much outshined by Hader.
The strongest out the cast is still easily Bill Skarsgard, who still fully commits to his horrifying role as Pennywise, mixing wonderfully over the top comedy with grotesque acts of evil seamlessly. There's very much a less is more approach with Pennywise this time around as he actually features very little in the film, which I actually preferred. Based on the success of the first film, they easily could have doubled down on Pennywise, but instead they commit to focusing more on the characters of The Losers Club, which is definitely a move that would annoy a few people, but for me, it's what I'd prefer.
While Pennywise and his presence are responsible for pretty much all the horror here, a lot of it is sadly CGI creations which look far too fake to have any kind of impact. While there is far too much CGI over practical work, there is still some monstrous creativity here as things get really, really weird. There are images I did not expect to see from a big budget studio film and I kinda applaud them for that. I don't wanna spoil anything, but you're gonna see some weird shit.
At its core though, the IT series is more about overcoming repressed trauma by tackling it head on, which is something the writing and cast manage to handle quite well. The plight of The Losers Club as they have to come to terms with the horror they had to endure as children is what makes this story interesting to me, not Pennywise going bananas and killing kids, which is fun, don't get me wrong, but seeing this characters change and grow stronger and confident as the film goes on is the appeal for me.
The actual battle between Pennywise as The Losers Club that ends the story was completely laughable and pathetic in the 1990 version and while this certainly improves on that, it still feels underwhelming. There are moments of weird and graphic imagery in the overstuffed finale, but like I said with a lot of the horror, it really was just a massively overblown mash of unconvincing CGI. I've not actually read the book, so I'm not sure how faithful it was, but they've done this battle with Pennywise twice now in similar ways, so his "True Form" really doesn't seem to be something that translates well on the screen.
Even with the disappointing finale, the actual end of the film really does wrap things up in a satisfying way, leaving everyone in a position that doesn't make me want a Chapter 3 and made me glad I went on this 5 hour journey with these characters I've really learned to like. That said, with Hollywood being the way it is, if Chapter 2 does half as well as the first one, I'm sure they'll wanna see Pennywise return in some form, in spite of the conclusive nature of this film.
I sound like I complained about this a lot, but in all honesty, I liked it quite a bit. It's flawed for sure and has its problems, but overall it's a satisfying end to this now 5 hour story between The Losers Club and Pennywise and it's a massive improvement on the 1990 adaptation thanks to the strong cast, character work, a now iconic portrayal of Pennywise and enough horrific imagery that while not always convincing, it is at the very least memorable. I feel like a broken record saying this once again this year, but IT Chapter 2 is once again a sequel that never lives up to its predecessors, yet still manages to be something worth watching.
7/10 Dans
IT: Chapter 2 is out now in cinemas in the UK. With a 4K UHD Steelbook available to pre-order from HMV
Watch the trailer below:
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