It: Chapter Two

(spoilers!)

It Chapter One premiered two years ago and was a massive success - it got positive reviews from critics, the audience fell in love with the film and it managed to become the highest grossing horror movie of all time. As entertaining as that movie was it had a lot of problems and now in Chapter Two the same problems return. But so does the fun, the emotions and of course, Pennywise.

The film, just like Chapter One, is extremely episodic and the editing is still a problem. Also this one suffers a bit from going back and forth between old footage of younger actors, new footage with them and then jumping back to 2016, when Losers are 27 years older. There was no other way to tell this story so it's not something that could have been improved but the film has so many repetitive scenes where the characters are attacked by Pennywise. Still, all those scenes are creepy and very well executed.
I think this movie is far more scary than the first one. There is nothing here as creepy as Pennywise taunting Bill and Richie as he is holding Eddie but the scares are very good. Bowers seeing Patrick in his room, the little girl being lured by Pennywise, Eddie's disgusting encounter with the leper and Ben hiding in a locker (I think this is the scariest moment in the film) are all wonderfully frightening moments.

There are some complaints out there about CGI which has this campy, old school look. I think it was intentional and a reference to Evil Dead. There's also a great reference to The Thing with Bill Hader even repeating the same exact same line from the movie. There are few very fun cameos in this - among others, Stephen King himself shows up in a scene with James McAvoy and Andy Muschietti is seen behind Eddie in the pharmacy. The third act is one of the most epic and biggest in any horror movie ever and Muschietti takes things to impressively weird levels - nothing as crazy as it was in the book which would probably be unfilmable, but it's still remarkable just how BIG this movie gets.
There are so many set pieces that are truly brilliant - the scene where Pennywise taunts Richie and flies down holding balloons, the gruesome opening of the movie (with very good Xavier Dolan as Adrian Mellon), the entirely new sequence that wasn't in the novel with Bill rushing to aid a child in the hall of mirrors and much hyped scene involving Jessica Chastain drenched in blood that has an amazing pay off involving Ben that made the moment so emotional.

The film's biggest strength, just like with the first one, is the cast. The young actors all return and do a beautiful job with the new material, particularly Sophia Lills and Finn Wolfhard, who gets to portray another side of Richie this time around. Bill Skarsgard doesn't have a moment as creepy as his work in Chapter One save for an amazing scene with a little girl, but Pennywise gets more personal here - really using The Losers' secrets against them in a merciless way. There's also a brilliant, sinister scene when we see him without make up.
The adult cast all do a great job but I still wish that Beverly was played by Amy Adams. While Chastain does a fine job and thank God manages to portray Beverley's warmth and courage, Adams would have done much better. James McAvoy really delivers as older Bill, Andy Bean does a lot with little time he was given and Isaiah Mustafa does an admirable job delivering some truly ridiculous lines. Jay Ryan is very good as Ben, effortlessly capturing the kind and sweet nature of the character.

But it's James Ransone and especially Bill Hader that everyone is rightfully talking about. They deliver the laughs and emotions here. Ransone gets the film's funniest scene as Eddie is attacked by Bowers and really knocks it out of the park in his every moment. Muschietti really surprises in another moment - smuggling a pop song to turn Eddie's encounter with the leper into a funny scene and it really works. Hader gets to play the movie's comic relief which is even more rewarding if you are a fan of his - did anyone else think of Herb Welch when Richie was caught in the deadlights? Hader improvised so much here and he gets so many jokes and one liners, all of them landing and making the audience laugh. From his hilarious lines in Jade of the Orient scene, the running gag of Richie wanting to leave town (Hader takes a line as simple as "I've got dates in Reno, man" and makes it into comedy gold) to the hilarious scene with Eddie and Richie wondering which door to open, Hader alone carries this movie to another level and without his charismatic, wonderful presence, this really wouldn't be much fun.
But it's another thing that makes this performance stand out - comic relief character in horror never gets to be the heart of the film, but here he does. Muschietti was extremely lucky Hader is this talented - the homophobia is present in the film's grisly opening and heartbreaking flashback with Richie being bullied but none of that would be truly justified if it wasn't implied this is why Richie doesn't come out - but it is SOLELY thanks to Hader's excellent acting right after the flashback ends and we see the look on Richie's face when we connect the dots. It's maybe a few seconds long but Hader captures such heartbreak and loneliness in that moment, it actually made me cry. They do a good job with the script at some points, though - in Richie act he mentions he has a girlfriend but then it turns out that he doesn't write his own material.

It's the final scenes of the movie where Hader, on his own, makes this film even more emotional than the first one was. His scenes beginning with Eddie's death to Richie's smile in his final moment as he finishes the carving on the bridge are exquisite. When he tears up in the river and then effortlessly turns the serious moment into a lighthearted one with a single line....this moment right here shows so well just how skilled he is both drama and comedy and how well he moves between different tones. I only wish Muschietti focused on him more, let us see even more of this because Hader was bringing his A game there (which admittedly, he always does). The critics who praise this as his best performance have clearly not seen his work on The Skeleton Twins and Barry, though, as while he is truly wonderful here his work in the other two is superb and goes above most performances out there.
While the film is very long I never felt the length. But I do wish that with such length Muschietti did focus more on the older actors, it was not necessary to have this many scenes with the kids again. The chemistry between the older cast is really great and they do a beautiful job, effortlessly making us believe they still feel the bond that they shared 27 years back. But I loved the cast so much, I wish we did get more of their interactions, banter and the focus on them doing such great acting.

If you liked It, you should like this one too. It's done in the same style which is unfortunately very clunky. But the fun is back too and this one is certainly funnier and more epic than the first film. Also how often to we get huge horror blockbusters like this? Almost never. So let's appreciate this one.

80/100 (2019, 169 min)
Plot: Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.
Director: Andy Muschietti
Writers: Gary Dauberman (screenplay by), Stephen King (based on the novel by)
Stars: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader