I have never seen IT Chapter Two. I loved IT (2017). I bought IT when it came out and intended on reviewing it here. But I delayed and delayed, as I tend to do. There’s no such thing as the right time to do something like that. Now is my time because I am doing a podcast with Chris about Stephen King films. That’s my sign to watch this.
The cast is solid. We now have the adult versions of the characters that we met in IT Chapter One. Jessica Chastain is now Beverly. James McAvoy is Bill. Bill Hader is Richie. James Ransone from the Sinister films is Eddie. I am unfamiliar with the actors playing the roles of Mike, Ben, and Stanley. Bill Skarsgard is back as Pennywise. In theory, we have a better cast, but the second half of the story is not as good to me. I am curious about what they do differently. Jesus, this is 170 minutes. The original was 180 for both halves. I will need to make lunch midway through. They basically doubled the length of the second half from the original, so I hope that decision pays off.
Start Film
Okay, that was a start…I guess. 2 gay guys get beat up by 4 local punks who don’t want gays in Derry. How hateful is the youth in Derry and who is teaching these kids this shit? It’s a fair question. They dump one of the gay dudes, Adrian, over the bridge and he gets attacked and eaten by Pennywise.
I like this guy that they have for Mike. He has a good voice. Okay, Bill’s overacting when Mike called him was silly. Like suddenly, your hand hurts? Why? Is it just because of the promise cut? Anyway, Mike is an author, so that makes sense. Eddie is a risk analyst and promptly gets into a car accident. Richie is a stand-up comedian. Ben is a handsome man and has his own architecture company. Stanley has a prettier wife than I would have anticipated. Stan doesn’t seem like he wants to return to Derry, so he gets in his tub, a little man ass, and well, you know what’s coming, most likely given his reaction to the call. Yup, Stan has slit his wrists. By the way, when they did the hand cutting and they make the promise, if you observe the reactions, Bev didn’t even flinch.
Bev doesn’t remember what happened. I assumed they would go a bit more with Bev and her husband, and sure enough. He really laid into her with that belt and that punch. God damn dude. Men, if you’re that insecure with your woman, you shouldn’t be in a relationship with her or anyone else. I guess this applies to both sexes, but typically you only hear about abusive men. There are too many insecure abusive fucks in this world. That’s all I’m trying to say. I’m also convinced that the only reason that the original ever aired on Lifetime is that Bev got abused by her husband. Think about IT.
Henry wakes up in the water. We see him get arrested for the murder of his father. Oh nice, the dude they got for older Henry looks exactly as I expected. Nice, Hockstetter is under Henry’s bed and gives him the knife.
I like this ongoing thing about Bill’s endings sucking. Was that in the book or was this a nod to most of Stephen King’s stories ending poorly? I hope it isn’t foreshadowing how bad this will end. Mike apparently remembers everything because he stayed in Derry. The farther away you get from Derry the more that you forget.
The fortune cookie scene was ridiculous. Richie yelling at the kid, Dean, was pretty funny at least. Everybody is pissed off now that they know that Stan is dead. So everybody bails on Mike? That seems kinda shitty. Well, Bill doesn’t, but that’s what makes Bill who he is. Hahaha, Pennywise luring Vicky to her death shouldn’t have been funny, but I needed something. Henry breaks out of the asylum and Hockstetter is waiting to drive him. That’s interesting.
Bev reveals that she not only saw how Stan died but how all of them die. That’s a fun power. Also, who covered the bill for the destruction at the restaurant? Most of them went on to have incredibly successful careers, which is a bit ridiculous. Out of a group of 7 kids who all have various levels of childhood trauma, 4 of them aren’t going to be huge successes.
What the fuck? The whole scene with Bill and Mike. Was that in the book? To see that play out, it wasn’t pretty. I’m sure that I am overreacting, but I didn’t care much for that scene. Oh, Bev can see because of the Deadlights. That makes sense. They are going to stop Pennywise by performing the sacred ritual of Chud learned from the Shokopiwah tribe. Bev says none of them make it past the next 20 years. So they can’t bail.
They had an underground clubhouse that Ben made. Is it just me, or did they kinda make young Eddie a tad different to better reflect adult Eddie? Sweet, a Lost Boys poster. Hahaha, the hair coverings so they don’t get spiders in their hair. That’s pretty funny, plus I get to hear “Word Up” by Cameo. To perform this ritual, they all have to sacrifice their artifacts. Everybody needs to find their artifacts alone. Perfect and convenient. Now we get 6 different stories to cobble up a bunch of time.
So Bev didn’t kill her father. But now he’s dead. Bev meets a Mrs. Kersh who lives in her old apartment. And her smile tells me everything that I need to know. Bev’s dad blames Bev for her mom’s death. I’m happy that he’s back. He’s so good at being a dick….and a psycho about his wife’s old perfume. Bev rips off a part of the wall, releases cockroaches, and finds some cigs, a key, and the postcard. Am I wrong for saying that the least she could have done was stomp on the roaches?
What is up with Kersh’s chest. At least Kersh is baking cookies. I love watching her peeping and doing weird shit. Okay, nude old woman dancing, that was funny. It was funny until they just made her into a CGI monster. It’s neat seeing Pennywise as the man.
Richie goes to the theater to find his artifact. There’s the Street Fighter video game. Richie played Street Fighter against Henry’s younger cousin and then things got weird. Richie offered to play one more time and that resulted in him being called a faggot. How does that even make sense? What the fuck is this shit with Paul Bunyan coming to life? Pennywise wants to play Truth or Dare. Okay, the people in the background swaying is creepy. And it ended looking stupid. They’re really using a lot of CGI here.
Is Bill’s artifact the bike? Stephen King as the shopkeeper is awesome. Hahaha, even Stephen King didn’t like the ending of Bill’s book. The kid from the restaurant sees Bill and he hears voices in the tub. Bill freaks out. I get what he was trying to accomplish, but perhaps a bit too much.
Time for Ben’s story. Pennywise is pretending to be Bev and I like that. But more CGI shit. Ben runs and hides in his locker. Fat kid, you can’t fit in a locker. I should know. I feel like they could have made adult Ben a little less handsome and perhaps bulky without being fat. It’s such a shitty thing. Richie plans on going home.
Time for Eddie’s story. Eddie hears his mom calling for him in the pharmacy basement. How is this plausible? Why would he go down there? The other stories mostly made sense. This one, not so much. Hahahaha, minor redemption with the “Angel of the Morning” bit. That was really the only positive thing that I can offer.
Why is Jessica Chastain top-billed over James McAvoy? I always considered IT to be primarily Bill’s story with Bev being secondary. Bill is going to the festival to save the kid, Dean. Richie took off in his car. Henry just stabbed Eddie in the face with the knife. Eddie makes fun of the mullet after stabbing Bowers in the chest. There’s so much angst toward the mullet in this film. I feel bad for Joe Dirt.
Bill chasing after Dean to end up in a funhouse, that makes perfect sense. Are we aiming for a jump scare here? Okay, this mirror scene is actually making me nauseous. Dean got got. I am curious if the intention was to make you nauseous.
By the way, is Richie’s big secret is that he’s gay? Just tossing it out there. They had the gay guys in the beginning. His obsession with dick size. He doesn’t have a wife. And it’s a dirty little secret.
Mike’s parents were crackheads? Henry is truly a madman. Richie kills Henry with a hatchet to the back of the head. Bill is going off-plan and fighting IT alone instead of meeting at the library. This also fucks up the ritual plans.
Back to the creepy-ass Well House. God, I hope there’s more CGI. They all get there at the same time conveniently. I’m not a huge Bill Hader fan, but he is doing Richie justice. I’ve never really understood the whole “Beep Beep Richie” thing.
You’ll never believe it, but Bill, Richie, and Eddie are locked upstairs again, only Stan is in the fridge this time. Ben is getting carved up, but Bev makes the save by breaking the mirror. Okay, Stan’s head is like a spider and I feel that they blatantly stole that from The Thing. Eddie was absolutely useless there in defeating Spider-Stan.
They get to the main sewer location and Bev is attacked by CGI old lady. I have to be honest, I have mostly mentally checked out. 40-45 minutes remaining, and I am not optimistic. But as long as there is no giant spider creature, I may still say that this was somehow a success compared to the original. By the way, they’re climbing through caves now. I want the twist to be Mike has been Pennywise all along and lured them all there to die. Would you be opposed to that?
I don’t even know what I am seeing. Is that the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones? Nope, it’s the place to perform the ritual. Time to burn some artifacts. Bill burns the boat, Eddie the inhaler, Bev the postcard, Ben’s page from the yearbook that Bev signed and kept in his wallet for 27 years, Richie the token from the theater, Mike has a rock from the rock fight, and Stan’s hair covers.
The Deadlights approach, they have to chant “Turn light into dark.” The light goes into the vessel that Mike has, but they stopped chanting before he put the lid on it and a red balloon prevents them from sealing it.
Apparently, there’s a 4th wall that Mike didn’t share with the group and this is why the tribe died. Yup, there’s a spider version of Pennywise. God damnit. I don’t want to play anymore. They all go running. Bill is back in his basement. Richie and Eddie have the 3 doors to choose from. Bev is back in the girl’s bathroom at school. Ben is in the clubhouse, and Mike is hiding.
Richie chooses Very Scary this time and there’s the lower half of the girl. Ha, that’s funny. They try Not Scary At All and there’s a pomeranian. They talk shit to the dog. And then a CGI dog monster. Did they just give up and say let’s just CGI anything that is supposed to be scary?
Georgie and young Bill have a chat in the basement. “You lied and I died.” Georgie likes to chant. Hahaha, there’s a penis drawn on the stall that Bev is in, and under it, it says “Rocket Man”. Oh, a “Here’s Johnny” reference. I don’t think that was as funny as they intended. The clubhouse is caving in on Ben. Ben is surrounded by dirt and Bev by blood. Ben confesses his love for Bev. Bev save Ben and that was just, that sucked. I thought Bev already knew that Ben wrote the poem.
Young Bill wants to kill older Bill. I’m so over the cartoonish nature of this. There is still a lot of time remaining. Richie saves Mike and tosses rocks, but Richie sees the Deadlights, so that’s fucked. Eddie launches the metal post at Pennywise and gets him good. Richie appears to be fine. Eddie thinks he killed Pennywise, but then Eddie gets impaled by Pennywise. Eddie is still alive, but he’s not surviving this one.
Eddie reveals that he made the Leper almost die by choking it. Mike says that Pennywise has to obey the body or form that he’s in. So time to find the small part of the cave which will force Pennywise to shrink in size. Eddie makes sure to tell Richie that he fucked his mother. HA!
Mike says that there’s more than one way to make him small. Pennywise says that he is the eater of worlds. Sir, you aren’t Bray Wyatt. Hell, Bray Wyatt isn’t Bray Wyatt anymore. So now they combat Pennywise by insulting him? This is the solution? They keep calling him names, mostly a clown. He shrinks. So Mike rips out Pennywise’s heart. The 5 remaining hold it together and squeeze it until it bursts. It looks like they killed Pennywise, with 12-15 minutes to go.
They check on Eddie, but Eddie is dead. Richie has a hard time letting go, but they gotta get the hell out because things are happening now, like the place is falling apart for reasons. They escape and the house collapses.
They go back to the spot where they swam, but everybody keeps their clothes on this time. Richie is still crying. Ben and Bev kiss underwater. That’s so great. Thank you for that moment. So cool. Hey, the scars on their hands have magically healed because nothing lasts forever…. in the cold November Rain.
And then everybody goes back to their normal lives. Everybody got a letter from Stanley’s wife but written by Stan. Eminem wrote Stan back. Dear Stan: I do want you as a fan. It sounds like Mike is finally getting the hell out of Derry. Stanley’s letter revealed that he was too afraid to go back to Derry and he knew that the whole group needed to be there to finish it. Richie revisits his carving of R + E. Ben and Bev are now together. Was that letter supposed to end it on a happy note? I guess maybe not happy, but closure. I don’t know. Either way, I am not Kentertained.
End Film
I’ve had two days to think about this film. IT Chapter Two didn’t need to be 170 minutes long. They could have easily cut 20 minutes out. I think that they were around the 30-minute mark by the time that they left the restaurant. I’m still not sure why Jessica Chastain got top billing. I have many gripes.
First of all, the pacing wasn’t nearly as crisp as it was in IT. This really felt like a director’s cut and not the theatrical version. I always live by my theory that if I am bored enough to check my watch or to see how much of the film is remaining, then the film has pacing issues. I checked so many times. Sometimes every 10 minutes.
Secondly, while I thought the CGI was used quite nicely in IT, Chapter Two basically abused the privilege. It went from understanding why they chose to use it to feeling incredibly cartoony. This was excessive, and I would say it was excessive before the final showdown with Pennywise, which has a ton of CGI in it.
Thirdly, that fucking confrontation with Pennywise took for-fucking-ever! They could have trimmed 5 to 10 minutes from that alone. And although I liked Richie, they made him almost pathetic at the end. Yes, he was in shock and all of that, but your survival instinct should kick in eventually.
Fourthly, the fucking ritual shit was stupid. I think that they could have handled it much better than they did. Like, Mike supposedly knew his shit and all of this, but then fucked it up. It felt like an excuse to give the character’s all a reason to separate. And even that was okay. But the ritual experience when they first showed it with Mike and when they actually performed it both failed spectacularly, in my opinion. It was almost like, for showing Mike’s experience, hey we can do this trippy scene that will look cool. We just have to wedge in there, and they just went for it.
Here are some other notes. I hated that Ben became practically a male model. Would it have been so bad for Bev to settle for a nice chubby guy who treated her nice? I am not sure if there was a need for all the star power in this one. I would argue that Mike, Eddie, and Richie shined more than the two big names and Ben. Props to James Ransone for possibly being the star of the group.
When you think about it, the best scenes in this film mostly were flashbacks to when they were children or when Richie or Eddie were saying something funny. That’s not really what you want though, is it? You want the adults to shine in their scenes.
I still liked the story. I know how negative I sound, but I still liked IT. The question that has been weighing on my mind is if I would honestly be willing to watch this again, on my own, just for fun. I’m just not sure. I would probably be willing to show it to friends if they wanted to watch IT with me. But to watch it again, on my own, with no real purpose, I don’t know. As background noise, while I play a video game? Yes. I feel like I need to watch IT again one more time next year and see if my feelings change any.
Final Rating – 5.0 – I don’t know if I have a genuine interest in rewatching IT Chapter Two for pleasure. In a lot of ways, it highlights the flaws and frustrations that I have with the second half of the story.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- New Line Cinema (presents)
- Double Dream
- Vertigo Entertainment
- Rideback
- KatzSmith Productions (uncredited)
- Lin Pictures (uncredited)
Please go find a copy and support the creators.