PLOT: Twenty-seven years after defeating Pennywise, the adult “Losers” return home to destroy the terrifying evil once and for all.
REVIEW: IT: CHAPTER ONE was one of those rare horror films that broke out so massively beyond its core base that it became a worldwide phenomenon, not only becoming one of the most financially successful horror films of all time but one of the biggest R-rated films ever. A sequel was a given, considering how the first film only tackled the first half of author Stephen King’s epic tome, but given how wildly well received the first one, how does the sequel hold up?
Here’s the thing – IT: CHAPTER TWO is not as good as the first film. In some ways, this movie feels like a victim of the first’s success, because to recapture the magic of the original, namely the appeal of the young cast, they’ve short-changed the new, adult cast playing the grown-up Losers. Thus, we have a lengthy, three-hour film that’s jam-packed with long flashbacks and an endless second act that kills the film’s momentum.
It’s a shame the movie is so uneven, as the first act is terrific – pretty much as good as anything from the first. The casting of the adults is pitch-perfect, with Jessica Chastain a dead ringer for Sophia Lillis, James McAvoy perfect doing the stutter as the now-adult Bill, while James Ransone is a dead ringer as the hypochondriac, Eddie. Former Old Spice pitchman Isaiah Mustafa is very compelling as the grown-up Mike, the one member of the crew who never left Derry, although as in the first, he gets short-shifted a bit. And, of course, the formerly heavy Ben is now the six-pack sporting dreamboat – as played by Jay Ryan. Of them all, the one who’s most instantly iconic is Bill Hader as the adult, Richie, with this the big screen role he needed to propel himself to that next level of stardom, trading on both his comic timing and the pathos he shows on “Barry” every week.
With an adult cast this good, you’d think they would have been allowed to dominate what should be their movie, but in perhaps the film’s most significant misstep, huge chunks of the film are devoted to extended flashbacks allowing the child actors from the first to reprise their roles. Now, I get that people loved them the first time, but they had their film. You have good enough actors here that constant flashbacks and dissolves to the adult versions aren’t needed – a factor not helped by the fact that the kids have grown thus CGI and audio tricks have been used to make them look younger.
This aspect is particularly deadly in the bloated second act, where the characters split up to retrieve talismans from their youth. This feels like filler and there’s no reason the whole second act had to be devoted to it in an already overlong film. Unlike the first film, the uneven acts make you feel the running time.
Still, IT: CHAPTER TWO does have moments of greatness. I liked the introductions to the characters, and whenever Hader’s on-screen, the movie works as his performance is unbelievably compelling. The last act is also dynamic in terms of eye candy, although it’s also significantly less scary than the first film, with Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise also suffering from a lack of screen time, with his other personas getting more time in front of the camera than he does – or so it seems.
Some of the smaller roles are also quite effective, with Quebec director Xavier Dolan powerful as the brutalized Adrian Mellon – one of King’s most compelling asides in the original novel. King himself also has a juicy cameo, as does the great Peter Bogdanovich, who seems to be playing himself. As in the original, Benjamin Wallfisch contributes a good score, although the eighties pop-song needle drops feel more tacked-on here. An example is how a good scare involving vomit is ruined by the use of Juice Newton's "Angel of the Morning", turning one of the few good gross-out moments into a joke. That's a recurring problem here – too many scares are sacrificed in favor of laughs.
It’s a shame that IT: CHAPTER 2 doesn’t live up to the first film, which is likely going to go down as something of a horror classic, and we all wanted the sequel to live up to it. In my opinion it never quite does, but overall it’s still perfectly decent and has some bits and pieces that are as good as anything in the first film, particularly a great first act, making this a mixed bag if anything. If you liked the first then, by all means, check it out. It’s not a bad film, but it’s a frustratingly inconsistent one that would have likely been a whole lot better has it had been a little less.