IT: Chapter Two (2019)

Rating: 6/10 (15 September 2019)

I've been deciding whether the film was a 7 or a 6 and for now it's a 6. The positives outweigh the negatives, the sort of criticism that came from when the film was first released perhaps has influenced my judgement when I saw the film and I agree with a lot of the points.
IT Chapter 2 is decent, it's funny, it attempts to have heart (which for some reason I just don't feel like it delivered on and it came across quite cheesy).
Andy Muschietti clearly has a love for the source material and creates a sequel that benefits solely from it's strong cast. Some scenes seem overly directed and crammed with stylistic decisions that don't further narrative.
The script seems a little muddled, there are some utterly brutal sequences, some incredibly funny sequences and some cheesy moments. It's sort of all over the place, whereas the first film had a strong foundation of a coming of age horror film.
The cast as I said is incredibly strong, Chastain,McAvoy, Mustafa, Ryan and Ransone are all great with of course the stand out being Hader, although personally I believe the child actors Martell, Oleff, Wolfhard, Lillis, Jacobs and Taylor were somewhat better with my favourite being Jack Dylan Grazer.
Bill Skarsgard is great when he's not being screwed with special effects. Should've left him alone and let him perform without any unnecessary CGI.
The special effects were a little iffy, I think the deaging (and refatting of Ray Taylor) were jarring whilst other visual effects were just silly and didn't have the effect I believe they intended. Looking at you severed Stanley head.
The cinematography was decent whilst there were some odd editing cuts with some reaction shots but this was forgivable.
The score should be commended. King's cameo was a bit cringey which I think can be said with the ending, it all feels a little bit wet and cringey.
The runtime didn't feel as long as I thought it was although the ending dragged on. The scares were few, this is down to the silly effects and the reliance on CGI.
Overall this is a decent perhaps forgettable sequel that I think suffers from the glory of it's predecessor, Muschietti, his crew and cast should be applauded for their commitment in telling this story which I believe does the novel justice if not losing some cinematic flair in the process.