This movie is kind of special to me. If you scroll down all the way to the first review I posted on this blog, you’ll see that it was a review of It (2017). Two years later, this blog is still up and I’m reviewing the ending. I was at the cinema last night, at the UK premiere of the movie.
However, I’m afraid I have to be the bearer of bad news. It Chapter Two isn’t as good as the first movie. This seems to ring true for most sequels, and most adaptations of Stephen King’s It. There’s even a running joke that none of Bill’s books have good endings in this movie, which is ironic, seeing as the ending of this film is kind of bad too.
As everyone probably already knows by this point, this film is set 27 years after the events of the first movie and the losers are all grown up now. Mike finds out that Pennywise is back, and calls everyone back to Derry to stop It.
It turns out that nobody really remembers what happened in the events of the first film. Apparently, when you leave Derry, you forget everything that happened there. This is probably a result of Pennywise’s powers. Because of this, all of the losers have to go through their own individual trials to remember what happened with Pennywise.
But this is also where it gets weird. Most people already know that there’s a lot of lore behind the story of It. Apparently some of this is hinted at in King’s The Dark Tower; but, as somebody who hasn’t read The Dark Tower books or all of It, I can’t really comment too much on that.
Mike tells the rest of the losers that they have to complete a Native American ritual to capture It. That’s why they have to get their memories back. I would say this seems strange and out of place compared to the first film, but apparently this is actually part of the book. I’d also like to remind any readers of this review that Stephen King was on all the drugs when he was writing It. All of them.
That’s basically the whole plot. At least, everything I can talk about without spoiling the film. And this film is definitely too long for a plot that simple.
Also, the trailers completely catfished us with those scenes of Pennywise as a human. That only adds up to one scene in the movie and doesn’t really go anywhere.
As always, Bill Skarsgard is amazing as Pennywise, and was definitely the best choice for the role. There’s one particular scene at the start of the film where Pennywise lures in a young girl by acting like a stereotypical circus clown. It definitely shows how terrifying he really is and why the children fall for his clown act.
However, Bill Haden definitely steals the show as Richie. He really does look like an adult version of Finn Wolfhard and his acting is amazing. He’s completely aware that he’s in a horror movie that’s kind of funny, and he uses that to his advantage throughout the entire film.
The casting for this film was great overall. Although some of the acting was better in the first movie, you can definitely tell that these are the exact same characters.
The ending of this film is rather disappointing though. I can’t give much away without spoiling the movie, but it comes across as very underwhelming and almost childish (although I suppose the childish part was intentional).
It Chapter Two also takes itself a bit too seriously for a story that’s this ridiculous. Stephen King fans have acknowledged that the ending of the book and the 1990 mini-series has been a bit ridiculous for years now, and so it’s a bit strange that the director decided to go down the serious route. Admittedly, it is difficult to make the ending funny whilst also keeping the horror themes alive, but there is a certain balance that has to be found in order to make the ending successful.
So, my final verdict for It Chapter Two is… it’s ok. I actually rewatched the frst movie a few weeks before this one came out, so perhaps I’m just disappointed that it isn’t as good. It’s not the worst horror movie I’ve ever seen, but it’s also not the best. The run time is also way too long for a story as simple as “the losers need to find some things and then defeat Pennywise”. If I ever feel like rewatching an adaption of It, I’ll probably go to the 2017 movie instead of this one (unless I decide to marathon the whole story). The acting from the children is better and more authentic than the acting from some of the adults in It Chapter Two, and the overall feeling of the film is much closer to what I would expect from a Stephen King movie. Although this film definitely isn’t bad per se, it’s a bit disappointing as a conclusion and misses the mark when it comes to its target audience. I would still suggest watching it just to see the ending, or if you’re a Stephen King fan in general. Just go into the cinema with the knowledge that it’s kind of a dumb movie, and you’ll probably enjoy it a lot more than I did.
6/10
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