IT: Chapter 2 (2019) Review

"Kiss me, fat boy!
-Pennywise



27 years after the events of the original film, all of the Losers have moved on from Derry and forgotten their fight with Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), except for Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa.)  When people in Derry start to die and disappear again, Mike calls all of the Losers back to their hometown to defeat the evil clown once and for all, but it won't be easy and not everyone is going to survive.


What Works:

The cast of Chapter 2 is pretty spectacular.  It's pretty much a dream team.  We all knew Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, and James McAvoy were going to be great, but even the smaller names are excellent.  James Ransome is perfect as my favorite Looser, Eddie, Isaiah Mustafa makes Mike much more interesting than he was in the first movie, and Jay Ryan looks so much like his younger version it's uncanny.

The highlight of the group is Bill Hader as Richie Tozier.  Hader is amazingly talented of course and he brings the comedy that I expected, but he also brings the emotional beats and has the best character arc of the bunch.  They added an extra layer to his character that works really well.

Bill Skarsgård is, once again, fantastic as Pennywise.  He makes the character his own and doesn't try to emulate Tim Curry.  He's unbelievably creepy, menacing, and a lot of fun.

I'm a big fan of the book and this movie is very faithful to it, even to its detriment at times, but I really appreciated that for the most part.  I know a lot of people don't love the adult storyline as much, but I really enjoy it and the filmmakers did a great job.

Finally, there are some really creepy sequences in the film.  Bill (James McAvoy) in the fun house, Bev (Jessica Chastain) visiting her childhood home, and the film's opening sequence on a bridge are all chilling in their own way and are very well done.


What Sucks:

Earlier I said the movie is faithful to the book to the point it hurts the film.  That part is the Ritual of Chüd, which is the part of the book that works the least.  They change the Ritual to make it possible to adapt to screen (unlike the book version), but this entire storyline could have been cut from the film.

Finally, the movie is a bit repetative in the middle with each of the Losers going off on their own, having a flashback to when they were kids and being attacked by Pennywise, and finally being attacked in real time.  It gets a little bit stale and might have worked better if the Losers didn't split up for so long.


Verdict:

Though not as good as the first film, It: Chapter 2 is a solid movie with a great cast, an awesome story, and some really creepy sequences.  Parts of the film could have been cut out or condensed, but it has still got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good 

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