Just Another Clown

Rating: 5/10 (22 February 2020)

I had high hopes for IT Chapter 2. I was absolutely dazzled by the first movie's aesthetic design and the dynamic performances of the child actors, glued together by what seemed like genuine friendship in real life. Chapter 1 also followed the novel's story pretty closely, with some adjustments in the interest of showtime and visual impact, which I thought worked well while still capturing the essence of the novel.
Sadly, I didn't see any of that in Chapter 2. While the actors were good and Bill Skarsgård once again shined as Pennywise, there were just too many broader flaws that could not be salvaged by performance. Too much time was wasted rehashing what we already understood about the characters. I felt like I was watching a "discarded scenes" compilation from Chapter 1, repeatedly shoved into the Chapter 2 storyline. And because of this the adult characters' arcs suffered as well. Surely in 27 years these people would have experienced new fears, passions, and growth. But they all seemed like echoes of the children trapped in adult bodies, with the exact same personalities and fears. I think the creators tried far too hard to copy the success of Chapter 1, without really understanding why it worked. Although the explosive visuals and cute humor worked with the young main characters in the first movie, these things undermined the sequel. I simply did not find it believable that these grown adults' deepest, darkest fears were things like fortune cookie monsters and old lepers and the like.
The ending was also extremely disappointing. I was looking forward to this because in the novel, the final battle was a dire, existential battle of determination. This one was a rather deflating and stale one. It turned Pennywise the "eater of worlds" into yet another uninspired CGI monster. Seemed like that's where all the extra budget went into, unfortunately.