“IT: Chapter 2” was one of the most anticipated films of the year, a follow up to the first chapter which was released in 2017. It continues the story of The Losers Club and their battle with Pennywise, the infamous evil clown. There are only three words to describe this movie: messy, predictable, & cheesy.
The directing style of Andy Muschietti is quite repetitive at this point, in his past three films he has had the enemy characters rush towards their victims in the same exact ways: with their arms flailing around or firmly reached out, or their bodies jerking/shaking while running towards them. Due to this, the oncoming attacks on the characters from Pennywise & the many forms he takes become monotonous after a certain point. The amount of cheap jump scares in this film was absolutely ridiculous, a scene would go silent and then BAM there goes Pennywise running after or scaring one of the Losers. You already know it’s going to happen, you anticipate it, and once it happens it has no affect. Essentially, the scare tactics used in this film were nothing short of lazy.
One of the things that I admired about this movie was it’s loyalty to the novel, a few of the scenes felt like they came straight from a page in the book and that was enjoyable to watch. The murder of Adrian Mellon in the very beginning of the film at the hands of IT was an exact replica of the scene in the novel, I was very happy to see that they kept that in there.
The most annoying part about the writing in this movie was that it was too heavy on the humor, the audience is laughing more than they’re being scared. The first film had a bit of humor in there, but it wasn’t this bad. It was almost as if IT: Chapter 2 was trying its best to also earn the title of dark comedy. The reactions of the characters when they encountered certain situations was terrible. For example, when Eddie gets stabbed in the face, he begins to laugh (it was a mixture of emotions due to being shocked by what just happened, I get it) but then right afterwards he cracks a joke & the audience is once again amused… a vital character just got stabbed in the face, it’s okay to not add constant comic reliefs & allow audience members to simply process what just happened. The verbal spats between Eddie & Richie were comical, of course, but adding comedy during scenes where we’re supposed to be shitting our pants was unnecessary. There were also moments where there was way too much going on in one scene, & then it would cut to a different scene for a few seconds & then cut right back to the initial one.. or sometimes it would continuously go back and forth between scenes. By doing so, the formula comes off as sloppy.
The worst thing about this film was the CGI. The amount of CGI was so excessive that Pennywise and the forms he would take looked hilariously animated. There is a scene where the younger version of Beverly has her head become a ball of fire, & the computer effects were just painful. The effects during the Ritual of Chüd scene was so laughable that I wasn’t even concerned with the fear exhibited by Bill & Mike’s characters.
Last but not least, the acting. Bill Skarsgård stole the show, he definitely added more intensity to his performance of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, & it was nice to see him receive more screen time compared to the last film. The rest of the Losers Club, with the exception of Bill Hader & James Ransone, were an absolute snooze fest during their scenes. McAvoy’s performance was so dull that I wanted the child version of Bill to come back, & this is coming from someone who adores McAvoy. Isaiah Mustafa, who played Mike Hanlon, was awful at acting scared… all he would do was begin panting, sweating, & talking fast. I’m not saying that the acting was terrible, I’m simply saying that they could’ve done better, especially when the performances from the child actors in the first film were so amazing.
Overall, this movie was a lame pile of mess. It’s not even a horror film, it’s a sinister comedy. Its loyalty to the book is appreciated, but where was the loyalty to the genre of horror? I didn’t mind the run time of the movie, which was almost 3 hours, because it allowed the film to focus on telling a story… which was also appreciated. There were too many lazy jump scares & awful CGI, too many scenes where the characters reacted in ways that they shouldn’t have, & too much repetition. Thanks for trying though, Andy, but unfortunately IT: Chapter 2 does not live up to the first chapter.
Final Rating – 4/10
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