About that Evil Killer Clown Movie, Chapter 2

The first Andy Muchietti "IT" film had a couple of good things going for it - the excellent cast of youngsters, the potent '80s nostalgia, some inventive scare sequences, and that terrifying Bill Skarsgaard performance. Most of those things are in the second "IT" film, but not nearly to the same extent, and don't work nearly as well. Certain changes couldn't be avoided - the action is moved twenty-seven years later, in the present day, so all of the characters are now adults. However, I take issue with some of the basic adaptation choices Muschietti and company made here, mostly tied to the film's structure and emphasis on certain characters.

The grown up Losers, including Bill (James McAvoy), Beverly (Jessica Chastain), Ben (Jay Ryan), Eddie (James Ransome), Stan (Andy Bean), and Richie (Bill Hader), are called back to their hometown of Derry, Maine, by Mike (Isaiah Mustafa), who never left it. Pennywise has returned, and Mike believes he has found a way to stop him. This requires all the Losers to revisit their pasts, remember other events from the summer they fought Pennywise, and finally put some old ghosts to rest. Pennywise isn't going to make it easy for them, however, enlisting their old bully Henry Bowers (Teach Grant) and a few other familiar faces to help torment them.

Clearly, there wasn't enough time to fully flesh out all the stories of seven main characters in one film, so I'm not surprised that Bill's wife and Bev's husband have mostly been left on the cutting room floor. However, I do find it strange that the emphasis has shifted significantly, clearly favoring Richie over Bill, who was the lead in the first film. Now, Bill Hader's performance is easily the standout one here, so it's to the movie's benefit, but that also means it feels less of a piece with the previous "IT." Gary Dauberman's screenplay also introduces some different bits of backstory and tries to tie up loose ends in a way that I found less than successful. There's a whole lot of emphasis on remembering the past, and not enough on overcoming it.

Most of the problem really comes down to the way the film is structured. It runs nearly three hours in length, and a huge portion of it is taken up by the individual Losers going off on their own to revisit their own traumas, and have personal scare sequences with Pennywise, before coming back together for the big showdown. Flashback sequences are generously interspersed throughout, which sometimes works, and sometimes just serves to drag things out and remind the viewer of how much better the first film was. Most of the scares here aren't as scary as in the first film, possibly because the main characters are now more thinly characterized adults, or possibly because of the way the scares are deployed. I found it very telling that a big, elaborate scare sequence involving CGI monsters coming out of fortune cookies is far less effective than the same scene in the old 1990 miniseries version of "IT," achieved with puppets.

There's an abundance of CGI here, which certainly helps make the monsters and the subterranean lairs and spooks houses look more impressive, but not more scary. This approach isn't all bad, though. The movie becomes more enjoyable as a supernatural action thriller in the last act, and I appreciate being able to see some concepts from the novel realized in a way that only a big blockbuster budget could afford. Despite all of my misgivings, the movie is a lot of fun once it gets past all the drawn-out nostalgia trips. There are a few good scares to be found, the most upsetting one involving Pennywise luring another unsuspecting kid to their doom. Callbacks and cameos provide pleasant distractions, including a whole sequence lifted from John Carpenter's "The Thing." Once you accept that "Chapter 2" isn't going to be able to live up to "Chapter 1," it goes down a lot easier.

I feel bad that most of the excellent adult cast wasn't given that much to do. McAvoy is fantastic, and I wonder if the movie would have been significantly improved if it had just centered everything around Bill the way it was originally written. James Ransome and Jessica Chastain are also fun to root for, and uncanny matches for their younger counterparts. Bill Hader, however, just takes over the movie and I guess I can't blame the filmmakers for letting him. He plays the adult Richie as a deeply screwed up comedian, who hides behind one-liners and asshole humor. His story easily could have been a smaller part of the film, but it also generates some unexpected heart and pathos. It's the one big thing this adaptation does that really distinguishes this version, and it works.

I just wish as much care could have been shown to the other characters' stories. Pennywise included.

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