Unnecessary Closure

Rating: 6/10 (22 January 2020)

As one of the massive fans of the first IT movie in the now IT series, hearing that viewers would have the opportunity to re enter the town of Derry, Maine in an IT Chapter 2 directed again by Andres Muschietti was very exciting. Watching The Losers take on Pennywise on the big screen yet again was a sight and a good continuation of the first film, however aspects of the plot regarding the character development, the overly lengthy run time of the film and predictability were what left me wondering if the continuation was really necessary at all.
When people start going missing yet again in Derry Maine, the Losers Club who have long been separated living own lives as now adults reunite 27 years later in their home town to fulfill their pact and finally put an end to Pennywise and the terrorism that comes with him. Obstacles encountered along the way bring the group closer together and throughout the film many flashbacks of moments from their childhood appear as each character regains their memory of the events that took place all those years ago.
As a viewer, getting to know the characters as adults, many resemblances of their childhood come forward in the way each one of them is leading their new life. While I do acknowledge that the casting in this movie was phenomenal, capturing each character accurately from child to adult, the way in which the script was written left me wondering what exactly happened to some of the characters and their behavior from their past to now present self. Characters such as Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) and Ben Hanscom (Jay Ryan) were the two in who I believed differed most from their childhood nature due to the constant amount of flashbacks. Seeing the way both these characters interacted side by side with their childhood personas were what made me realize just how different their behavior became. While there is room for many different interpretations as to why they have changed, after seeing the first IT movie many times it seemed odd how the writers had Ben characterized as being almost entirely different from his childhood self and Beverly losing the inner strength she seemed to have as a child in her adulthood, the flashbacks are what assisted with the doubt and contributed to a bit of confusion when it came to the characters development.
While the amount of flashbacks throughout the film gives the viewer a good sense of nostalgia and also proves necessary with some aspects of the plot, it was a few scenes such as those along with other scenes from the present that created an unnecessarily long length of the film in which I believe could have been cut down shorter and still have been equally if not more successful. What I believe director Andres Muschietti failed to realize when creating this film is that many scenes that made the cut shouldn't have as many had little contribution to the main plot of the film. Scenes that proved essential also left me having a larger sense of predictability than I was expecting and left me knowing too often when things such as jump scares or key events in the storyline would occur.
IT Chapter 2 representing the second half of the famous Stephen King novel IT, proved to be an interesting take on what happens next for the Losers Club. As an IT fan I do have to say that I enjoyed the film as a sense of closure it gave to the first however there were many more parts of the film where I was left a bit disappointed in which I was not expecting. To fans of the IT series who have not yet seen the second chapter of the film I would recommend to go watch it as it did have incredible cinematography and a great cast. Many laughs came from the film as well as some tugged heartstrings and while it did have its flaws it was also a good wrap up to its first film.