Movie Review: It: Chapeter 2

Rating: 6/10 (30 September 2019)

I've been putting of writing this review for a little while now. That's because no film this year has left me more conflicted after leaving a screening as this one. To be transparent this was high on my most anticipated films of the year after the first film proved to be a surprisingly, emotionally resent and enjoyable horror film. Given the source material I was prepared for the second installment to be more muddled than the first but I was not prepared for just how meandering, uneven and freaking long it turned out to be.
It is easiest to talk about this film in chucks, so to start with the introduction is sloppy and strangely rushed given the overall run-time. It is hear that it becomes clear that the new cast are what is going to carry this film with Bill Hader and James Ransone in particular filling the screen with their presence right out of the gate. This is a well cast film with all the actors working well together and managing to capture some of the personality of their younger counterparts.
Once the losers club is reunited the problems start to show themselves. Most of this film consists of heavy dialogue scenes in darkly lit rooms with over the top and often corny lines being delivered in surprisingly engaging ways followed by big CGI horror set pieces that feel rejected from one of the Insidious sequels. These scenes will then be followed by one or two of the main cast walking in an unrealistically empty street for way to long, rinse and repeat for the better part of two hours before we get to the big climactic ending (which for obvious reasons I wont get into here).
The film also features extensive flashback scenes with the cast of the first instalment. For the most part these get in the way of the main plot and could have done with being cut down a fair bit but it is still nice to see first hand the connection these characters had as kids (even if the de-aging and voice manipulation gets pretty distracting after a while).
Don't get the wrong idea from this review however, this is one of the films it is easier to talk about the bad stuff than the good stuff but there is some really good stuff in here. As I mentioned before Bill Hader and James Ransone are both brillant and the rest of the cast also does a great job in their respective roles. I also think that Andy Muschietti is a great director, the movement of the camera and overall visual flare of the "scary" scenes makes me wish I could see him direct something with a much better script.
Steven King's classic horror novel is a strange, meandering mess that will forever be divisive. There is something to said about how both mainstream adaptations have been exactly the same.