It Chapter Two - A Near Perfect Film
Losers never say quit…Losers never forget…Losers never say die. And now? Now we’re going to have to kill this fucking clown.
IT: Chapter Two was directed again by Andy Muschietti and continues the story of the Loser’s Club, who 27 years ago faced off against a clown…creature…thing named Pennywise, a beast that feeds on fear, particularly in children. Having forgotten everything of the past, including their vow to return to Derry and face off against Pennywise once and for all, the Loser’s Club get a devastating phone call and are forced to return home where Pennywise is once again taking anyone it feels like and feeding on their fear.
So, this movie has a pretty huge cast, including the kids who returned from the first movie, who I absolutely adored. They were quick witted, funny, and it felt like they were already a tight knit group of friends. They reminded me of myself when I was younger, and that felt very real to me. The same can be said for their adult counterparts, portrayed by James McAvoy (Bill), Jessica Chastain (Beverly), Bill Hader (Richie), Isaiah Mustafa (Mike), Jay Ryan (Ben), James Ransone (Eddie), Andy Bean (Stanley), and of course, Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise). It was actually quite beautiful to see the Losers come together by the end of the film, but let me talk about that in a minute and get down to the nitty gritty, the finer details of this film. And before anyone asks, I won’t be addressing the controversy surrounding a specific scene that happens at the beginning, since it sets the tone and is so shocking and visceral that I feel it would be a disservice to ruin that for anyone who has never read the book. So, let’s get down to it.
Technically speaking, I found the performances to be pretty awesome, but there were a few moments of overacting or some lines from the script that to me felt misplaced. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can feel hokey at times. These moments are few and far between, however, and I’m pretty sure were accurate for the Stephen King novel of the same name. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about the run-time but honestly, it moves at such a quick pace that I was not turned off by it at all. That’s my statement about the ‘bad’ part of this movie. So, you can probably already tell that I loved it.
As for the good? Everything about this movie is incredible. On the surface, it looks like a generic monster movie. Scary clown (yes, this version of Pennywise is incredibly terrifying), shocking violence and deaths, some funny moments, and a happy ending. But that’s just surface level. If you dig deeper, you can actually see that these characters are much more than surface level, each one harboring a deep, dark fear that makes them the prime candidate for Pennywise and his insatiable hunger. We get a film that is actually quite beautiful once you take away all the horror aspects of it. You get to see these amazing people who have endured so much in their childhoods come together again. It’s something that actually brought me to tears, having been removed from my own friends and family for almost a decade now, and not being able to regularly interact with them, that it hurt my heart. I was heartbroken by a few scenes, of which I won’t ruin, but I will say this: pay attention to Bill Hader’s performance in this movie. Yes, he’s a comedian playing a comedian, but his character is so much more than that, so much deeper than that. He really was the standout from this cast and I cannot wait to see what he has coming in the future. The movie also has some very bloody, very violent kills that were quite shocking to me. The opening scene alone (won’t ruin it) sets the tone for just how fucked up this movie is going to become. Hell, the adult actors even resemble their kid counterparts almost perfectly…I loved that.
So, all of that, the relationships, the acting, the kills, the very touching and very sad ending, it amounts to what? For me, it amounts to a perfect film. It is so much more than what you see on the surface. You really need to dig deep and find that underlying theme to really get what Stephen King was trying to say in his book and in the movie that Andy Muschietti brought us. The way it made me feel (for real, I was crying) proves that this movie and the novel that spawned it, deserve our attention. I highly recommend this film and I implore you all to check it out. It’s in theaters now and I think you’ll really dig it.
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