Great Sequel.

Rating: 8/10 (26 September 2019)

Review:
'It: Chapter Two' is an American supernatural-horror film directed by Andy Muschietti. It is a sequel to the 2017 film 'It', both based on the 1986 novel by Stephen King. Going into this movie I was the most excited I have been to see a film in a long time. But I can honestly say I was nervous too. I wasn't nervous that the movie was going to suck, I knew Andy Muschietti could pull off a great film with the material he had available to him. I love the first 'IT' and his earlier work with 'Mama' was fantastic. He knows what needs to be done when constructing a good horror movie. I was nervous for two reasons. One being the fact that I enjoyed the first movie so much that I didn't want this movie to fall short like a lot of other sequels do. The other reason is the ending, because I was never a fan of the ending of 'IT', whether that be in the novel or the 1990 adaptation. I will discuss my feelings about the ending of this one later in this review.
Set in 2016, 27 years after the first film, the story follows the remaining members of the Losers Club reuniting in order to defeat the eponymous being who has returned to terrorize the town of Derry, Maine.
I'm going to talk a bit about the casting decision in this movie before I get to actual acting! This is some of the best casting choices I have ever seen in film. Not one actor felt out of place, everybody looked, acted and overall embodied the kids that they were supposed to be playing. We all knew that Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy were going to crush this movie, they're amazing in everything. Everybody else did a wonderful job, and not once in this movie was I taken out of a scene because something lacked or felt off with the acting. But, I need to discuss how brilliant this one person was in this move because he was the standout for me by miles and that person is Bill Hader. I did not expect to come out of this movie saying Bill Hader was the standout, but my god he was good. He plays the adult version of Ritchie and it's brilliant. He is so funny is this movie (of course), but he was so quickly able to play different emotions when he needed to whether it be anger, sadness, happiness or whatever, his character felt it all and he played it so well!
It's hard writing a review for this movie (especially spoiler free), because I loved it so much that I just want to talk about it for hours. Sure, it has some problems, but I personally feel that a lot of the problems in this movie are forgivable. It has some pacing issues at times but being nearly 3 hours long one could expect that. It had so much story to tell you can't expect it to be balls to wall every minute. You know if it was and they shortened the movie people would than complain that it's nothing like the book. The movie is not as scary as it's predecessor, but I think that was purposeful being that the first one was kids being terrorised by this evil clown. In this one it's more of a revenge tale on Pennywise. Going back to Bill Hader being super funny, another actor who was amazingly funny was James Ransone - who plays the adult version of Eddie Kaspbrak. These two played off of each other a lot throughout the movie and I can honestly say I have not laughed so much, or so hard in another movie this year. They didn't over do the comedy though, at times where you think maybe this shouldn't have a joke in it you remember this is Ritchie, I wouldn't believe the scene if there wasn't a crack about something.
A movie's ending is everything. A bad ending can ruin a good movie, a good ending can save a bad movie. With the ending to this movie I left feeling okay. I didn't love it, but it was a lot better than what it could have been. I'm not going to talk about it other than that because I will get into spoiler territory. If you're a fan of the book it could honestly go either way with liking it or not.
Overall, as a super fan of Andy Muschietti and Stephen King I would gladly rate this movie 5 stars, but I do understand some flaws with it. If you liked the first one you will have a great time here, maybe even a slightly better time dare I say. I loved it and can not wait to see it again.
4/5