The Losers Club is all grown up after 27 years and living their separate lives when the seven members receive a call from Mike, (Isaiah Mustafa) saying Pennywise the Clown is back in Derry. The movie brings some star talent featuring Jessica Chastain as Beverly, Bill Hader as Richie, James McAvoy as Bill and Bill Skarsgard playing IT or Pennywise the Clown.
With such big Hollywood names, the acting was top-notch throughout the film. Even though the movie seemed more comical than the last—in part due to Bill Hader—there were still scenes where viewers sympathized with the characters and what they experienced. Hader and Skarsgard steal the show and provide a stellar performance.
However, the huge, glaring problem with the movie is how it appeared more iconic than what it ended up as. Yes, “IT” was a decent horror flick but not quite on an iconic level.
Throughout the movie, characters would say lines from the first film and build certain actions up more than they were worth. Advertisements made the movie seem like it would be as big as “Avengers: Endgame.” Even when watching the trailers it is clear that’s the vibe movie creators were going for rather than focusing on creating a good horror movie conclusion to the infamous “IT” story.
In a similar fashion to the movie’s predecessor, the ending was terrible. It was comprised of several callbacks to the first movie; no one wants that. The way scenes and characters were wrapped up seemed lazy and almost childish. Ironically, Stephen King—author of the original IT book—is in the movie and pokes fun at himself for writing terrible endings. Whether or not writers intentionally wanted a bad ending because King is known for such, the hyped-up movie series concluded horribly yet again.
On the other hand, I enjoyed the scenes with Pennywise and the various other creatures. There was a good mixture of CGI and practical effects within the monster scenes and for the most part, the film was pretty freaky.
Looking back though, more clown action should have been featured rather than random monsters; that is what makes the original “IT” TV series with Tim Curry as Pennywise so great. The show focused a lot on Pennywise interacting with the Losers Club, even if the clown was simply messing around. That’s what made the series unique. In “It Chapter Two,” various creatures just chased the Losers around until the end.
Regardless of the cons, I enjoyed myself watching the finale. It was a fun movie but dragged during several scenes, as it was an unnecessary nearly three-hour-long film. Nevertheless, it turned out to be good entertainment. The movie presented a lot of spooks and grotesque scenes similar to the one before and increased comedy as well. Honestly, there is not much else to watch in the theaters at this time, so give this a shot. I give “IT Chapter Two” 3/5 stars.