Bill Hader shines in this less-than-satisfying conclusion to the Stephen-King adaptation.

Rating: 7/10 (19 September 2019)

IT: CHAPTER 2
A REVIEW
Ensemble movies are always difficult to pull off. There are concerns with the character arcs, who gets importance and who gets not, and they get muddied by studio concerns about which actors get more screen time. An example of this would be the X-Men franchise, which, with the glorious exception of X-2 and to an extent, Days of the Future Past, never could achieve a satisfying compromise with storytelling needs and studio-mandated decisions.
It: Chapter 1 was a perfect example of the heights it is possible to achieve when everything happens smoothly. Partly because they were working with a cast of teenagers who, with the exception of Finn Wolfhard, weren't global stars and partly because the script demands it, and also because the coming-of-age genre and horror genre allows for such compromises. The Chapter 2 was always going to have to underachieve, simply because of the scope of the material that was left to cover from Stephen King's mammoth book, but also because of the lofty standard set by the first movie.
That being said, Chapter 2 doesn't disappoint too much. There are patented horror movie scares, although in lesser number than the first, which maybe affected the horror quality of the movie. Since It movies were designed as conventional horror movies, they needed to have more of them, unless they were leaning more into to the psychological aspects of horror, like the director Muschetti's previous work, Mama (2013), which borrowed techniques from Darren Aronofsky. The reliance of psychological and atmospheric tactics, when pulled off successfully, can bring great dividends, like Jennifer Kent's The Babadook (2014), which in my opinion is the best horror movie in the last few years. But this formula is difficult to pull off. Chapter 2 didn't pull it off, and the movie comes across as too much of a conventional horror film but without too many conventional jump scares.
Bill Hader shines among the ensemble cast as the elder version of the hilarious Richie Tozier. They found the perfect casting for both young and old Richie. The cynically funny, motor mouthed kid which hints at a complex character underneath is perfectly portrayed as an adult by Bill Hader, who might have been mistaken to be born for this role. His funny bone is kept at a balance here, without going overboard like the Marvel movie-style but doing just enough to provide a slight breather while keeping the tension intact. James McAvoy, as the older Bill, does his studio-mandated leading man, which I was mildly disappointed by, since he is, and remains, an actor who still brings something different to a Hollywood blockbuster, however conventional the role might be written. Jessica Chastain conveys the emotional weight of all the abuse that Beverly Marsh suffered. Even with the limited time given to her story, the abusive relationships that she keeps continuing to live on, and the toll the Deadlights had taken on her, is given a glimpse of in the movie, and is extracted by Chastain to the optimum effect as the capable actor she is. James Ransone is yet another flawless casting, as he embodies Jack Dylan Grazer's weird tics, twitches and mannerisms so well that within a minute of his being onscreen, even before another character uses his name, I knew this was Eddie. Jay Ransom, who played the Beast in the atrocious Beauty and the Beast TV series, plays the older Ben. Now all successful and hunk-handsome, he still has the young Ben's infectious warmth and serene innocence. Mike Hanlon, the kid with the least screen time in the first movie, gets the most in the second, is portrayed by Old Spice hunk Isaiah Mustafa. He alone has stayed back in Derry among the Losers, and therefore retains all of his memories regarding the clown, and has researched all these years, never believing It to be truly gone, and ready for the moment It returns. The haunting fear and old battle scars still remain with him, and it is yet again the difficulty of the medium which doesn't allow for a more detailed examination of Mike's personality and growth, severely affected by PTSD and secrets only he will remember and keep. Bill Skarsgard does his thing with Pennywise, making me think whether he should've been cast as the DCEU Joker.
Overall, the movie is well paced, and I didn't know how long the runtime was until I came out of the theatre.
VERDICT: 6.5/10
A one-time watch