It: Chapter 2: It Struggles to Float

So before I went to see It: Chapter 2, I watched the first one at a friend's house.  It was my first time watching it in its entirety (well I saw most of it, I was a little late).  Over the summer I watched a little of it.  Viewing it again cemented my feelings toward the film: it wasn't very scary, but still a really good movie.  Does the second chapter hold up compared to the first one?  That's what I'm here to tell you.

It: Chapter 2 is directed by Andy Muschietti and stars James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, and Bill Skarsgard.  It's been 27 years since the Losers Club had their terrifying experience with Pennywise (Skarsgard) and now he's back with a vengeance.  They must return to Derry and defeat the dancing clown once and for all.  With all of that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

The main thing that everyone agrees is good about this movie is the cast.  They are fantastic.  It's a little scary how spot-on the casting is.  They seem like the Losers Club all grown-up.  I never felt like I was watching James McAvoy try to play Bill.  It felt like he was Bill.  Even though the entire cast does a great job, there are two standouts: Bill Hader as Richie and James Ransone as Eddie.  They are insanely good and are the best parts of the movie.  Whenever they are on the screen, they steal the show.  Everything you've heard about their performances is true, they're fantastic.  They're chemistry is off the charts and it reminded me of how my friends are with each other.  There are some scenes with Richie that are very powerful and Hader does a tremendous job with them.  He really brought it here.  I hope we get to see more roles for Hader and Ransone in the future.  That's not to say the entire cast doesn't do a good job, because they do.  They all seem like best friends that haven't seen each other in a very long time.  The best parts of the movie is when the Losers are all on screen together.  Skarsgard, yet again, is great as Pennywise.  He has a child-like attitude about him that's very scary.  You can tell he put a lot of effort into this performance.  There are a few scenes with him (which I don't want to give away) that are pretty scary.  I think I liked him more in the first one (more on that later), but he still did a very good job here.  There's also a lot of humor in this movie and most of it lands.  The film is also wonderfully shot.  Muschietti did a great job with the direction of the film and I'm really looking forward to his Flash movie.

I said earlier that I liked Pennywise more in the first film.  That's mainly because he's in it more.  The entity, It, is in this movie a lot, but it felt like the Pennywise form wasn't featured that much.  It's usually just  a CG creature which doesn't have the same impact that the clown has.  It also doesn't help that the CG isn't that good, which was a criticism I had with the first one.  For some reason though, it worked in that movie because we see the clown more.  In this one, there are a lot more creatures.  Going into this movie, I knew it was going to be long (it's 2 hours and 49 minutes) and I'm fine with long movies, but this movie really felt lengthy.  There were entire subplots that added nothing to the film.  Hell, there were some important plot points that didn't really add anything to the movie (again, I don't want to get into it because of spoilers).  Even though it's a really long film, I felt like they kind of skimmed over some important things that happened.  "But Ben, those things were like that in the book."  That's great, but sometimes what works in a book doesn't work in a movie, especially when the novel is as long as the Bible.  It's the director's job to decide what's crucial to this version of the story.  This film is based on the book, the keyword being based.  It's the skeleton for the structure of the movie.  That's always been my issue when people argue a movie doesn't follow it's source material to a T.  It shouldn't have to.  The themes should be there without a doubt, but how those themes are delivered are up to the filmmakers.  What's even odder to me is, from what I hear, some of the more important plot points aren't even in  the novel.  Another issue I had with the movie is that it constantly cuts back to the kids.  I get it, they were fantastic in the first and they are really good here, but, in my opinion, it takes away from spending time with the adults.  What really bothered me was the effects used with the kids.  The actors have grown since they filmed the last movie and they couldn't be replaced.  During the flashback sequences, the kids are digitally de-aged and it's very noticeable for most of them.  It took me out of the movie.  If you're going into this movie expecting scares, you're going to be pretty disappointed.  There are a few creepy scenes, but there's a lot of jump-scares, which can make anything scary.  The tone switches a lot during the film, too.  It's like the movie can't decide which genre it wants to be.  This was surprising to me because the director said in interviews that this film was scarier than the first one.  It wasn't.  The pacing is also a bit choppy in the beginning.  It jumps all over the place, but thankfully focuses up later on.

It: Chapter 2 was a pretty mixed bag for me.  The cast, particularly Hader and Ransone, is fantastic, their chemistry is off-the-charts, there's some genuine scares, the humor works, and the film is beautifully shot.  What really holds this movie back is its length, unnecessary plot points, many tonal shifts, sub-par CGI, a lack of Pennywise, not a lot of genuine scares, and some odd pacing in the beginning.  Sadly, the more I thought about this film, the less I liked it.  Recently, the director said he wants to do a super-cut of the two films and I'd be pretty interested in that.  That's not to say Chapter 2 is a bad movie.  It's not.  When it's good, it's really good.  The negatives really hold it back, though.  If I were to rate it, I'd give It: Chapter 2 a 6-6.5/10.