-REVIEW-000.gif)
Last night I took the time to re watch IT Chapter Two and after it finish it click and I can probably understand why Skarsgard didnt want to return to the character for the TV series, because chapter two is not bad but its nothing like the 2017 movie, so he probably though this sounds like money grabbing after a "not so successful" return. Chapter two is one of those movies that should have been way better than it ended up being and I cannot lie after how damn good the first one was you would think they could keep that momentum going but nope they totally dropped the ball on this sequel. The biggest issue here is that the adult Losers Club just does not work at all, like yeah they did a solid job casting actors who look like older versions of the kids but nobody has chemistry together and the script gives them basically nothing interesting to do except walk around looking sad and scared for three hours straight, Jessica Chastain is sleepwalking through her entire performance and James McAvoy is trying way too hard to make up for the fact that his character has zero development, Bill Hader is probably the only one who feels somewhat real and brings actual energy to the screen but even he cannot save this mess from being a total disappointment.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349950/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Rottentomatoes Rating
What really pisses me off is how they completly wasted Pennywise in this movie, the dude was barely in it and when he does show up it feels rushed or just not scary at all except for maybe that one scene with the creepy old lady in Bevs apartment, that I remember was in the damn trailer so they just shoot themself in the foot by spoiling your own best moment, the ending is complete garbage with this terrible CGI version of Pennywise that looks like a video game boss and the way they kill him off is so lame, they kill Pennywise by telling him he is just a clown? wtf is that?. The movie keeps jumping back and forth between the kids and the adults and every single time we go back to the kids you remember just how much better the first movie was, witch only makes this one feel worse by comparison because your constantly being reminded of what worked before, they tried real hard to recreate that heart and friendship vibe from the first one but it just doesnt work at all, everything feels fake and forced like they are going through the motions without any real passion behind it. The runtime is a huge problem because this thing is almost three hours long, the movie is just one character after another going off alone to face their childhood fears in these repetitive sequences that all follow the exact same formula, Ben goes to one place and gets scared, Beverly goes somewhere else and gets scared, Bill does the same thing and its like wash rinse repeat for fourty five minutes straight. The CGI in this movie is also way worse than the first one, they clearly had a bigger budget but decided to spend it all on computer effects that look fake instead of using practical effects that would have been way more scary and effective, theres this one scene where Pennywise turns into a giant spider creature with his face attached and it looks absolutely ridiculous. Every time Pennywise does that weird CGI run thing or his face morphs into some digital effect it completely takes you out of the movie and ruins any tension that might have been building, you cannot be scared of something that obviously does not exist in the same space as the actors.
Source
The characters make some of the dumbest decisions I have ever seen in a horror movie, Bill becomes obsessed with this random kid he just met and follows him around like a creep to the point where even the kid is asking why this strange man keeps stalking him everywhere, Eddie is even more annoying as an adult than he was as a kid because he just screams and complains the entire time, they gave him the same fears he already overcame in the first movie so his whole character development feels complexly pointless and repetitive. He gets stabbed in the face with a knife and then just walks it off with some gauze like it was no big deal when realistically that injury would have put him to the ER for the amount of blood he is loosing, the romance between Ben and Beverly is also terrible because they have zero chemistry throughout the entire movie, Ben just stands in corners looking depressed while Beverly makes googly eyes at Bill and then suddenly at the end they are in love because of some poem he wrote when they were kids, it does not feel earned at all because you never see them actually connect or have any meaningful moments together so when they ride off into the sunset you just dont care. Henry Bowers shows up again as the bully from the first movie except now he is an escaped mental patient who tries to kill the Losers and he serves absolutely no purpose in the story, he stabs Eddie in one scene and then Mike kills him like ten minutes later and thats it, you could cut his entire character out of this movie and nothing would change at all.
Source
Speaking of things that dont work they used this weird deaging CGI on some of the child actors because they filmed this movie like two years after the first one and the kids had grown up a bit, Finn Wolfhard as young Richie looks especially weird with this googly eyed effect on his glasses that makes his face look all distorted and fake, it would have been way less distracting if they just filmed the kids normally instead of slapping CGI all over their faces. These flashback scenes are actually some of the best parts of the movie because the child actors still have that charm and chemistry from the first one, every time we cut back to them as kids you remember why you loved that movie and then we jump back to the boring adults and you get disappointed all over again witch is not a good sign for your sequel. The way they defeat Pennywise at the end is completely embarrassing and makes no sense, they basically just bully him by calling him names and saying he is small and weak until he shrinks down into this pathetic little thing and dies, thats it, thats the big climax after almost three hours of buildup, they just tell him he sucks and he gives up like some kind of weird therapy session instead of an actual battle witch is suppose to be this epic showdown we have been waiting for. The movie also kills off Eddie during the final fight and while his death scene should be emotional it just falls flat because we have not spent enough time with these adult characters to really care about them, Richie has this big dramatic reaction and Bill Hader does try his best in that scene but it feels forced because the movie never properly developed their friendship as adults, it just relies on our memories of the first movie to do all the heavy lifting witch is lazy writing.
I wanted to like this movie so much because the first one had its problems but overall was pretty enjoyable and set up a lot of potential for the second half of the story, instead we got this overlong boring mess that wastes a talented cast and completely fumbles one of Stephen Kings most iconic villains, Pennywise deserved so much better than what we got here and Bill Skarsgard is doing his best with the material but the movie gives him nothing to work with and buries him under layers of bad CGI. This sequel proves that bigger budgets do not always make better movies, sometimes less is more and they should have focused on making Pennywise actually frighting instead of just throwing money at computer effects that look like garbage, if your a fan of the first movie I would say maybe check this out just to see how the story ends but go in with very low expectations because this is not the satisfying conclusion anyone was hoping for. I am giving this movie a 7 out of 10 and thats being very very generous, Bill Hader is great and some of the kid flashbacks are good but everything else ranges from mediocre to bad, all this been said THANK GOD we now have "IT Welcome To Derry (2025)" Tv series making justice and giving Skarsgard the proper script and screentime Pennywise deserved.
#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #horror, #pennywise, #sequel, #stephenking, #clown, #scary, #disappointment, #cgi, #runtime, #boring, #adults, #kids, #flashbacks, #chemistry, #cast, #billhader, #jessicachastain, #jamesmcavoy, #childhood, #fears, #movie, #review, #theater, #budget, #waste
Posted Using INLEO