A great movie, that could have been even better...

Rating: 8/10 (7 September 2019)

IT Chapter 1 was, in my opinion, a fantastic movie, not because of the scares (despite not having many), but because of the characters. The kids in that movie were just flawless, they worked so well off each other. I didn't think the grown-up versions wouldn't even come close to the chemistry that their younger counterparts had, and I wasn't wrong. Despite having a brilliant cast as the older versions, they just didn't have that same spark. Now this can be because they haven't seen each other in 27 years, most of them are estranged, and are living very different lives. Of course they wouldn't be the same as they were as children, but I felt this dragged it down a little. But despite this, every actor played their role perfectly, with the highlights being Bill Hader as Richie Tozier and James Ransone as Eddie Kaspbrak. These two were flawless as the older versions of their characters. The other actors, were also very good, but you would expect the likes of James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain to give great performances. And like the previous movie, Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd nails it as Pennywise. You can tell he inherited his family's trend of playing psychotic characters, because he is so good here, he is almost too good. The character of Henry Bowers was pointless, and added nothing to the film, he could have just been cut out completely.
The movie has tons of pros and cons, with "some" of the direction, cinematography, the soundtrack, the acting being the main highlights of the film. It is a stunning looking movie, from the lighting to the camera angles. But there are also tons of bad things about the movie, that stopped it from becoming better.
One thing is that, it over uses CGI. While in some scenes, they clearly used practical effects, and make-up, because some of the creature designs are remarkable, its just a shame that some of the scenes that could have been terrifying, were filled with unnecessary CGI, especially at the end. Another problem I had with the movie, is its pacing. The movie seems to cut and dash between scenes, despite the movie being ridiculously long, like seriously, this movie is almost as long as Avengers: Endgame, that isn't normal for a horror film. The film drags in places, yet, I cant think of what scenes they could have cut out, because the scenes shown, were needed, but at the same time, while I was watching, I felt like they had cut tons of the film out. Some scenes were too quick, and felt rushed.
But my biggest complaint was that it tried to put TOO much comedy in there. The first chapter was funny at times, but the comedy was well done, here there are some terrifying and thrilling scenes, and they are bogged down with quick one-liners. It ruined those scenes. Why the director did this is a mystery.
IT Chapter 2 is a good film, it has some great moments, but also some bad ones. The scenes with the younger versions were the best scenes, and some of the creepy eerie moments, where Pennywise was tormenting children, were all perfect. But the film suffers from the typical shove CGI here, shove CGI there, and it really brings it down, as well as the pacing. But despite that, I still enjoyed it.
7.6/10