Imperfect but still admirable concluding part to the story

Rating: 7/10 (9 September 2019)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
When a series of child killings start again in the small town of Derry, Maine, Mike Hanlon, the one member of the 'Losers Club' who stayed behind, is forced to summon the other six back to defeat the monster they swore a blood oath to defeat. They have all gone and carved highly successful lives for themselves, but all make good on their promise to return, with the exception of Mike Hanlon, who commits suicide. Fuelled with a burning desire to honour his memory, they band together to defeat Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard), the evil clown, once and for all.
When the remake of the original TV adaptation of Stephen King's epic novella was released two years ago, it was easy at first to anticipate it being another throwaway, cookie cutter remake of the sort getting churned out on a pretty regular basis these days, but lo and behold it went and became the most successful horror movie of all time. This was especially appreciated by viewers like me, to whom the original novel and TV film had a special impact on their early years. And so, this essential second part, from the same director Andy Muschetti, has rolled around, wrapping up his interpretation of Stephen King's original source material. At just under three hours, no one could accuse him of being anything less than thorough, and while it's quite flawed, it's still a fairly satisfying endeavour.
Once again, Muschetti has gone all out and strove to include parts from the book that were absent from the TV series, including Adrian Mellon's brutal homophobic murder and the Ritual of Chud (although strangely the Bradley Gang slaughter is missing, odd since I'm sure I saw it featured in the trailer...editing floor), making it a more in depth and accurate account. But the best thing about it is....Pennywise. Or, more specifically, Bill Skarsgard's performance. He really comes into his own in the role here, bringing it alive and electrifying the screen with his presence. If his version of the role, and Tim Curry's from the TV film had been around at the same time, I would have struggled to differentiate which was more terrifying on the basis of this.
Unfortunately, this is not enough to detract from the hammy, over the top delivery of the grown up Losers (a problem with the child stars in the 2017 film too!), an equally roughshod description of some of the important side characters (most notably Henry Bowers, whose pact with Pennywise to bring down the Losers is never properly hinted at!), an uneven balance between horror and humour and an overly excessive use of loud, harsh jump scares that get too much after a while.
It scores more hits than misses, though, and is a more than satisfying closing chapter in this phenomenally successful 21st century reimagining (with even Stephen King himself making a self referential cameo.) ***