Let me preface this review by announcing that I am not a fan of horror movies. I don’t like being scared and I prefer a more story-driven film than the average horror flick. However, I loved the first It movie. I think of It as a coming of age film that happens to feature a terrifying clown monster. I saw Chapter Two in theatres, eager to see how the Losers Club would grow up. I would also like to note that I have not read the Stephen King book, but I am a firm believer that an adaptation needs to stand on its own two feet, and saying “you’d understand if you read the book” is not an excuse for a poorly adapted story. This review will probably only make sense if you’ve seen the first installment of It.
The premise of It Chapter Two is that the Losers Club (Bill, Ben, Richie, Beverly, Stanley, Mike, and Eddie) are called to reunite in Derry, Maine when the evil entity Pennywise begins a fresh cycle of eating children. Pennywise has been dormant for 27 years, so the Losers are now 40 and have mostly forgotten about Derry (with the exception of Mike, who never left). The grown-up Losers were excellently cast: every single one of them is a dead-ringer for the younger actors.
Unfortunately, the bond from the first movie is totally lost here: the adults are incredibly quick to turn on each other and spend half the movie planning to ditch everyone else. The kids fought, but in the end they were a team that Pennywise couldn’t divide. The movie also splits the protagonists up and shows each of their solo quests, which felt repetitive.
James McAvoy (Bill) and Bill Hader (Richie) get a chance to shine and were definitely the best parts of the movie for me. Bill is deeply tormented by the death of Georgie and believes that it is his fault Pennywise killed his little brother. He sees the cycle repeating in a very personal way and is more driven than anyone else to stop the monster. McAvoy is an excellent actor and I felt Bill’s torment as he tried to save other kids because he could not save Georgie. Richie has a character arc that was an emotional high-point for me and includes some of the best scenes in the movie.
Jessica Chastain is an excellent actress and Beverly was one of my favorite characters in the first movie, but she is utterly wasted here. Bev has gone from an abusive father to an abusive husband (which we see in her first scene) but doesn’t get to overcome her past in the same way Bill does. I’m not familiar with Isaiah Mustafa (Mike), Jay Ryan (Ben) or James Ransone (Eddie) but I’m sure they’re talented too. Unfortunately, they were also given very little to work with. Mike especially is reduced to nothing but a device for exposition, which was both boring and disappointing, since many people were excited to see Mike take a bigger role in Chapter Two.
Bill Skarsgård is absolutely incredible as Pennywise, but he barely gets any screen time. I found myself wanting to see him a lot more, which is odd since I don’t like the scary parts. Pennywise is just so captivating, but the visions he conjures for the Losers were tiresome. I got really bored of seeing CGI zombies chasing people. When someone who literally jumps at every jump-scare is bored by your horror movie monsters, you’re doing something wrong. Adding in Henry Bowers felt unnecessary; with Pennywise, we really didn’t need another villain.
This movie is also LONG. It’s 2 hours and 49 minutes when it definitely doesn’t need to be. With better writing, a good 45 minutes could have been shaved off and would have made it much more watchable. Splitting the Losers up was unnecessary and added a lot of run time.
Overall, I thought It Chapter Two had some shining moments and a few poignant character arcs, but it ended up clunky, lengthy, and it wasted most of the characters. It relied too heavily on exposition, CGI, and solo quests. I did enjoy seeing how the Losers had grown and how they struggled with their fear of Pennywise as they tried to do the right thing by stopping him. Pennywise is captivatingly spooky but ultimately underutilized. I would give it 2.5 stars out of 5: there were parts I really enjoyed but as a whole it wasn’t spectacular.