I saw this film on it's opening weekend, of course I did, but I still want to do a Halloween special and I have a bunch of posts done that just need to be touched up and posted, so here we are, only a couple of weeks late. It's a bit odd though when you consider that this is the sequel to my favourite film of 2017, a film whose poster I framed and hung in the upstairs hall of the house until February this year, when it was replaced by an Alita: Battle Angel poster that movie's awesome and you can fight me on it. As usual though, being lazy for a bit and letting the dust settle on any given film can have its perks, such as seeing social justice activists lose their shit over this film's handling of homosexuality and homophobia, because that's really weird; a sequel to a film that dealt with sexual abuse, grief and had a kid get his arm ripped off in the first five minutes also dabbles in some dark and mature shit. Sarcasm aside, this film has received some more reasonable criticism, chiefly regarding its pacing and horror, so do I agree with those criticisms or is this a contender for best film of 2019, spoiler alert, maybe and no.
It Chapter Two's opening scene is the one that's attracted the most negative attention from progressives; the scene where a gay couple get the shit kicked out of them and one of them gets thrown off a bridge before getting snatched up and killed by the Clown. This scene is uncomfortable to watch, which I think was the point, but I don't think it's as strong an opening as the first film's opening scene. Think back to that film and Georgie getting killed by Pennywise, it was brutal, it was shocking, it was extreme, it was effective. This scene is certainly effective, you feel bad for the guy and hope that the dickheads get theirs, then Pennywise shows up and you feel even worse for him, but this scene didn't make me any more afraid of Pennywise. The result of Georgie's death was to establish a threat to the characters; kids can and do die, and I know that this scene is trying to set the same precedent for this film; adults can and do die, but that's just not as scary, adults die in horror all the time, and the fact that kids were getting killed and eaten in the first film made that film's Pennywise scarier, even if it's same Clown, just twenty-seven years later. This doesn't take away from the other scenes of Pennywise just doing his thing, which are as creepy and entertaining as ever, but I'm sure you see my point. The film does do a good job of introducing us to the adult losers, in each introduction we get a clear picture of who they are and the lives they've lived; Bill's now an author, Richie's a comedian and Beverly works in fashion.
But on a deeper level, these scenes establish the Losers' flaws; Eddie's married a woman that looks like his mum, Beverly's in an abusive marriage, and Bill struggles with giving his books satisfying conclusions. These feel like genuine continuations of the characters' flaws from the first film, and in addition to the downright creepy resemblances they all have to their kid counterparts, it really makes these characters believable and compelling as the Losers all grown up. It Chapter Two expands on its characters in small but interesting ways. It's interesting to see many of their underlying flaws from the first film haven't gone away, most notably in Eddie and Beverly, who are both in abusive relationships with their respective partners just like they were with their respective parents, or Bill who can't give his stories closure because his story never got the closure he wanted, or Ben who's still lonely and lovesick, despite apparently hitting the gym every day since the late 80's. Meanwhile Mike, the Loser who stayed in Derry to keep watch spent his entire life trying to understand It and find a way to kill It, becoming reclusive and obsessive in the process. And then there's Richie and his dirty little secret, which the film is surprisingly subtle about given how in-your-face they could have been about it, this is 2019 after all. But rather than being shoved in your face, it ends up making the film's finale all the more bittersweet as we learn what his secret is. But what all these characters have in common is their likability, something brilliantly carried over from the first film, and it makes for some very strong comedy, most strongly from Richie, obviously, he is a comedian.
And that's this film's biggest strength; seeing the Losers reuniting and catching up in the first hour and teaming up against Pennywise in the third, roughly, this film's runtime is a daunting two hours and fifty minutes. And when they're all together, joking and laughing with each other or fighting Pennywise side by side, it is awesome. The scene in the Chinese restaurant is really cute and funny, as is the scene of them revisiting their old clubhouse, and there's a real sense of comradery when they descend into It's lair in the film's finale. It feels less like a group of friends in a horror film and more like a band of brothers (and sister) in an epic dual against evil. And that evil is It, of course; the shapeshifting Clown with a nose for fear and a taste for flesh, the younger, the better, and just like in the first film, Pennywise is a fantastic villain. When the film lets him hunt, it's a lot of fun, whether he's luring kids to their doom with a friendly clown act or scaring the shit of them, and whenever he interacts directly with the adult Losers, that's a lot of fun too. But things get a bit bumpier when he's trying to scare them or lure them with his various forms. His routine of luring them into dark, shadowy corner and springing on them with a jumpscare worked fine in the first film, but in this film, like the opening scene of It killing a guy, seeing It jumping out and yelling boo on a bunch of adults really isn't that scary, and whereas these scenes were brief in the first film, and made less tedious by the film's faster and tighter pacing, in the sequel, they make up the middle third of the film as the Losers all go off alone to look for their artefacts.
This segment of the film is a slog, it's repetitive and tedious as each Loser finds their artefact and has a run in with It. In isolation, these scenes aren't that bad, but all of them fit a similar formula and they just keep going on and on. Some of them serve a purpose outside of the artefact, chiefly Richie's dirty little secret and Eddie getting the upper hand on his Leper, so these scenes aren't pointless, they're just boring, and you're watching wanting them to get on with it so they can get back together and fuck that clown up. All the while another old enemy of the Losers is out and about, stalking and planning to kill them and then not actually doing it. It makes sense that he would be secondary to Pennywise, both from a narrative and marketing standpoint, but he reminds me of Azog from The Hobbit, a villain they put in the first act because Smaug wasn't going to show up until the end of the second, the only difference being that each act of The Hobbit is its own almost three hour long film, so it makes a bit more sense there, in here, this guy's just wasted. On the plus side about this middle portion of the film, it gives room to develop the characters a little more, with each one remembering or confronting something about themselves and their past, usually involving a dancing clown. And naturally, it becomes more important in the finale, so whether or not you find this sequence just a bit boring or painful to watch will really depend on how invested you are in this story. And each time I've seen this film, because I've seen it four times now, I tell myself that in the end, it'll be worth it, because it is.
This film's finale is all kinds of awesome, just like the first film, it involves the Losers going to that creepy old house and putting their fears aside to take down the clown. And this final act is a lot of fun; filled with haunted house type scares, many of which calling back to the first film, a bunch of character scenes and a showdown with a giant, Lovecraftian monster, so it's basically everything I wanted from this film. Since I saw this part of the story before in the miniseries, I had a rough idea of where the film was going, but unsurprisingly, this film blows that miniseries out of the water in its execution. And it doesn't just do so in its visuals, which are obviously far better, it brings the story of the Losers to an end, wrapping up any loose ends and cleverly expanding on the first film and in doing so, somehow does what the first film did and actually deliver a conclusive and fulfilling ending. Not that this will matter when It Chapter Three gets announced, something I really hope doesn't happen because this story is concluded, especially given that the first film was lightning in a bottle and even with the same people behind it, the sequel struggles to keep up. While it isn't a perfect film, it is a perfect ending to the story started by the first film, and that is what makes this film so good, even with all of its failings of which it admittedly has a decent number. What we're really learning here is that all it takes to win me over is a giant monster, that and a compelling character drama and a damn cool villain, and in this film's case, that's tick, tick and tick.
It Chapter Two's opening scene is the one that's attracted the most negative attention from progressives; the scene where a gay couple get the shit kicked out of them and one of them gets thrown off a bridge before getting snatched up and killed by the Clown. This scene is uncomfortable to watch, which I think was the point, but I don't think it's as strong an opening as the first film's opening scene. Think back to that film and Georgie getting killed by Pennywise, it was brutal, it was shocking, it was extreme, it was effective. This scene is certainly effective, you feel bad for the guy and hope that the dickheads get theirs, then Pennywise shows up and you feel even worse for him, but this scene didn't make me any more afraid of Pennywise. The result of Georgie's death was to establish a threat to the characters; kids can and do die, and I know that this scene is trying to set the same precedent for this film; adults can and do die, but that's just not as scary, adults die in horror all the time, and the fact that kids were getting killed and eaten in the first film made that film's Pennywise scarier, even if it's same Clown, just twenty-seven years later. This doesn't take away from the other scenes of Pennywise just doing his thing, which are as creepy and entertaining as ever, but I'm sure you see my point. The film does do a good job of introducing us to the adult losers, in each introduction we get a clear picture of who they are and the lives they've lived; Bill's now an author, Richie's a comedian and Beverly works in fashion. 
But on a deeper level, these scenes establish the Losers' flaws; Eddie's married a woman that looks like his mum, Beverly's in an abusive marriage, and Bill struggles with giving his books satisfying conclusions. These feel like genuine continuations of the characters' flaws from the first film, and in addition to the downright creepy resemblances they all have to their kid counterparts, it really makes these characters believable and compelling as the Losers all grown up. It Chapter Two expands on its characters in small but interesting ways. It's interesting to see many of their underlying flaws from the first film haven't gone away, most notably in Eddie and Beverly, who are both in abusive relationships with their respective partners just like they were with their respective parents, or Bill who can't give his stories closure because his story never got the closure he wanted, or Ben who's still lonely and lovesick, despite apparently hitting the gym every day since the late 80's. Meanwhile Mike, the Loser who stayed in Derry to keep watch spent his entire life trying to understand It and find a way to kill It, becoming reclusive and obsessive in the process. And then there's Richie and his dirty little secret, which the film is surprisingly subtle about given how in-your-face they could have been about it, this is 2019 after all. But rather than being shoved in your face, it ends up making the film's finale all the more bittersweet as we learn what his secret is. But what all these characters have in common is their likability, something brilliantly carried over from the first film, and it makes for some very strong comedy, most strongly from Richie, obviously, he is a comedian. 
And that's this film's biggest strength; seeing the Losers reuniting and catching up in the first hour and teaming up against Pennywise in the third, roughly, this film's runtime is a daunting two hours and fifty minutes. And when they're all together, joking and laughing with each other or fighting Pennywise side by side, it is awesome. The scene in the Chinese restaurant is really cute and funny, as is the scene of them revisiting their old clubhouse, and there's a real sense of comradery when they descend into It's lair in the film's finale. It feels less like a group of friends in a horror film and more like a band of brothers (and sister) in an epic dual against evil. And that evil is It, of course; the shapeshifting Clown with a nose for fear and a taste for flesh, the younger, the better, and just like in the first film, Pennywise is a fantastic villain. When the film lets him hunt, it's a lot of fun, whether he's luring kids to their doom with a friendly clown act or scaring the shit of them, and whenever he interacts directly with the adult Losers, that's a lot of fun too. But things get a bit bumpier when he's trying to scare them or lure them with his various forms. His routine of luring them into dark, shadowy corner and springing on them with a jumpscare worked fine in the first film, but in this film, like the opening scene of It killing a guy, seeing It jumping out and yelling boo on a bunch of adults really isn't that scary, and whereas these scenes were brief in the first film, and made less tedious by the film's faster and tighter pacing, in the sequel, they make up the middle third of the film as the Losers all go off alone to look for their artefacts. This segment of the film is a slog, it's repetitive and tedious as each Loser finds their artefact and has a run in with It. In isolation, these scenes aren't that bad, but all of them fit a similar formula and they just keep going on and on. Some of them serve a purpose outside of the artefact, chiefly Richie's dirty little secret and Eddie getting the upper hand on his Leper, so these scenes aren't pointless, they're just boring, and you're watching wanting them to get on with it so they can get back together and fuck that clown up. All the while another old enemy of the Losers is out and about, stalking and planning to kill them and then not actually doing it. It makes sense that he would be secondary to Pennywise, both from a narrative and marketing standpoint, but he reminds me of Azog from The Hobbit, a villain they put in the first act because Smaug wasn't going to show up until the end of the second, the only difference being that each act of The Hobbit is its own almost three hour long film, so it makes a bit more sense there, in here, this guy's just wasted. On the plus side about this middle portion of the film, it gives room to develop the characters a little more, with each one remembering or confronting something about themselves and their past, usually involving a dancing clown. And naturally, it becomes more important in the finale, so whether or not you find this sequence just a bit boring or painful to watch will really depend on how invested you are in this story. And each time I've seen this film, because I've seen it four times now, I tell myself that in the end, it'll be worth it, because it is. 
This film's finale is all kinds of awesome, just like the first film, it involves the Losers going to that creepy old house and putting their fears aside to take down the clown. And this final act is a lot of fun; filled with haunted house type scares, many of which calling back to the first film, a bunch of character scenes and a showdown with a giant, Lovecraftian monster, so it's basically everything I wanted from this film. Since I saw this part of the story before in the miniseries, I had a rough idea of where the film was going, but unsurprisingly, this film blows that miniseries out of the water in its execution. And it doesn't just do so in its visuals, which are obviously far better, it brings the story of the Losers to an end, wrapping up any loose ends and cleverly expanding on the first film and in doing so, somehow does what the first film did and actually deliver a conclusive and fulfilling ending. Not that this will matter when It Chapter Three gets announced, something I really hope doesn't happen because this story is concluded, especially given that the first film was lightning in a bottle and even with the same people behind it, the sequel struggles to keep up. While it isn't a perfect film, it is a perfect ending to the story started by the first film, and that is what makes this film so good, even with all of its failings of which it admittedly has a decent number. What we're really learning here is that all it takes to win me over is a giant monster, that and a compelling character drama and a damn cool villain, and in this film's case, that's tick, tick and tick.
You're Just A Clown
It Chapter Two does what it has to do; it wraps up the story started by the first film and ends the stories of these lovable and memorable characters, as well as their evil, immortal tormentor. And when the Losers are together, they shine, and when they're fighting Pennywise, they shine, it's just that bit in between where the film kind of falls apart, becoming repetitive and boring and losing some of that Losers club magic. But like the first film, its finale is something that I don't think will ever get old, and neither will its villain, which is as frightening and awesome as ever. But like the first film, this is a film about seven friends, and that's where this film is at its most powerful. It's not as good as the first, but I wasn't expecting it to be, and even still, it's worth watching.
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