It: Chapter 2
/“For 27 years, I’ve dreamt of you. I craved you. I missed you!”
Filmology Rating: 2 out of 4
It: Chapter 2 is the sequel to an okay horror film from a few years ago. The same creative team is back along with a new cast of adults playing members of the Losers' Club twenty-seven years later. For a three hour film, the plot is embarrassingly simple: get the gang back together, unite, defeat Pennwise. The one and most important thing that was learned while watching this film was that there is over three-hundred and thirty tiles on the ceiling of the theater I was in.
It's still unsure whether or not to call this film a trainwreck, but it's definitely a very messy film. If you're wondering how similar it is to the second half of the 1990 TV film, it should be stated that it's almost beat-for-beat the exact same thing.
The one aspect every person seems to make consensus on is that the acting is brilliant. This cast really does help with the three hour runtime and helps make a lot of the tedious and boring parts watchable. This was possibly the hardest film to sit through because it really was like watching a house burn down. It just happened to take three hours.
Occasionally, I bring this quote up, but "brevity is the soul of wit." -Shakespeare. In other words, was there a more concise way of telling this story? There is definitely a good ninety minutes in here somewhere.
The second act, especially, is atrocious. The pacing and structure of everyone splitting off for a while was awful. It was one scene after another of the same thing. Again and again and again and again. It was one of the worst theatrical experiences of the year.
It's time CGI is addressed. The amount of CGI jump scares and things that scream at the camera was disgustingly large. It got to the point where I just threw up my hands and screamed internally. This is obviously hitting that popcorn-horror audience because some people apparently liked it. It's so much scarier when the atmosphere and tension is used for suspense. Instead, this film has CGI everything that screams at the camera with a loud *CLANG* noise.
The tone is another very problematic issue. It's more of a comedy than it is a horror film. Which means it fails at being what it is, most importantly, supposed to act as: a horror film. In actuality, everyone laughed at what was supposed to be scary and the majority of what was supposed to be funny was met with awkward silence.
The film really does gain ground in the third act. I found when everyone came back together, the film really drove home lots of good emotional moments. However, the final battle between The Losers' and Pennywise was almost unbearable. This is a film where the watch will be checked at least five times.
Their plan to defeat Pennywise was also horribly convoluted. They have this ancient Indian box that's supposed to act as a spirit thing? Because someone put the word "Ancient Indian Artifact" in the script, that automatically entails that it has some kind of superpower. And the rules of Pennywise and how this thing will defeat him was never properly explained. You MUST explain your horror rules in a horror film.
You only care for the adults because you cared about the well-written children of the last film. It's a completely different film when there are adults fighting Pennywise instead of kids. Pennywise isn't even scary in this. At times, he just walks around in broad daylight. Though Bill Skarsgard did an excellent job, nothing came off as scary.
The amount of references in this film was very gratuitous. There were references to John Carpenter's 'The Thing', 'Psycho', 'The Shining', 'The Lost Boys', 'Nightmare on Elm Street', and 'Die Hard.' I'm sure there were more, but each one of the references was almost as embarrassing as the last. Don't make such obvious references to films that are clearly better than yours. There is even a very awkward cameo.
Overall, this is a dumb, horribly paced, tonealy uneven, CGI indulgence. I would rather watch the second half of the TV movie.
Rating: Skip It
-Nolan