Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.
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This sequel to the highest-grossing horror movie of all time (unadjusted) takes place 27 years later in the same town of Derry, Maine. The rambunctious kids are all adults now and have gone on their separate paths to some form of success. Unfortunately, the good fortune for each is put to an end by the return of Pennywise, who seeks more victims for his twisted games. Being the only ones that have stopped the evil force, the adults must come together again to put an end to this bloody mess.
Director Andy Muschietti returns behind the camera after the record-breaking success he earned from 2017's "It". For the second time around, Muschietti goes even bigger and bolder than before, both in terms of the horror set pieces and the length.
When it comes to giving audiences what they came to see, Muschietti delivers on adding even more blood, gore, and creepiness. Pennywise's indescribable powers get even more creative as his prey are stalked and slaughtered with unnerving brutality.
The biggest fault that plagued the previous film was its recycling of cheap jump scares that were meant to artificially hold your attention. That same problem is even more glaring in the sequel as any scary moments are just startling moments where something pops out at the screen. The more they happen, the more predictable and boring they are to watch.
A runtime is never indicative of quality by itself, every movie should earn its length through skill and craftsmanship. And at 170 minutes, "It Chapter Two" falls way short of earning its record-breaking runtime. Instead of the horror being a slow burn, it's more of a slow churn as the recycled jump scares quickly lose their minuscule luster and make this already long film feel even longer.
Screenwriter Gary Dauberman takes up the impossible task of adapting Stephen King, a challenge that has killed the careers of countless adapters before him.
Dauberman tries his best to break away from the ridiculousness within King's novel, but his efforts end up backfiring on him and make the film even more awkward as some elements are left in and some left out. The story wants you to take it pretty seriously, but keeping in the weird elements make that almost an impossible task.
Muschietti didn't do much to justify the excessive length, but Dauberman should shoulder more of the blame with his uneven pacing. The film starts great with the together and playing off each other with a fun and brisk pace. Then, against all logic, Dauberman has them split up for ninety minutes, severely slowing things to a crawl and forcing the jump scares to keep you awake.
The highest regards should go to casting director Rich Delia as he has brilliantly put together a group of adult actors that uncannily look like their younger counterparts. Unfortunately, good looks are the only quality some actors possess here.
James McAvoy does fine as Bill. The most evident acting trait he shows off is his struggle to hide his Scottish accent with a less than convincing New England one.
Having a rocky 2019, to say the least, Jessica Chastain follows up the bomb that was "Dark Phoenix" with another subpar performance. She doesn't shine as brightly as Sophia Lillis' younger Beverly despite being the more acclaimed actress with a lot more screen time.
The standout performances come from the two Bills in the cast, Hader and Skarsgård. Hader plays adult Richie and fairs the best in the cast at toeing the line between drama and comedy.
Skarsgård as Pennywise is a sight to see but unfortunately doesn't get seen for long stretches. Between him and Heath Ledger's Joker, future performances for clowns now have an insanely high bar to reach.
With over five hours of material between two films, the "It" series has come to a less than satisfying close with "It Chapter Two". There are some things to admire Muschietti and co. for doing or trying to do. But for every great Bill Skarsgård moment (which is all of them), there were just as many moments of wasted potential due to unoriginal filmmaking. Overall, between its highs and lows, "It Chapter Two" makes for a semi-enjoyable time. Just make sure to bring a seat cushion.
There are more scenes with Pennywise transforming and creating twisted ways to mess with the returning losers club members but sadly they are all done with CGI and are all standard copy and paste scenes from the original mini series and when the movie finally gets to it's climax the makers of this "Horror Movie" think by simply making Pennywise bigger it instills more fear into the audience when really all it does is scream CGI and all the suspence is watered down to bigger pixels on screen than there where before "Terrifying"
The only and I do mean only saving grace this movie has is the cast they all do a great job on screen especially considering they have to pretend to be scared and flee in terror from a green screen it's not the actors fault this movie was a big let down.
I recommend watching the original IT mini series if you haven't already seen it Tim Curry's performance as Pennywise is the reason why people who grew up in the 90s have a fear of clowns because a great actor in the right role can make all the difference in a movie Tim Curry will always be Pennywise no matter how many remakes are made just like Judy Garland will always be Dorothy in The Wizard of OZ there performance makes the movie so memorable and it can't be re-created no matter how much CGI you use.
Why? Well, first of all, Pennywise wasn't scary at all. In fact, it was progressively getting more and more difficult to take him serious as an embodiment of evil as the movie progressed, because he was just too goofy. And whereas he was genuinely disturbing in the first chapter, the clown was just loosing it in chapter two.
And running at close to three hours, "It: Chapter Two" was just too long, and too much of a drag to sit through, especially when so much of the contents just felt like it was there to fill in the movie and add to the play time of the movie. There were so many things that could easily have been trimmed away without the storyline suffering.
The CGI was good, and definitely carried the movie a long way. But some of the CGI such as the long-limbed old woman chasing Beverly was just too comical and didn't really feel like it fit into the movie.
It was nice that they actually had Stephen King himself in the movie for a short cameo.
They had a good selection of casted actors and actresses to perform in the movie as the adult versions of the children that Pennywise stalked and fought. It was really nice to see James McAvoy in the movie.
All in all, this wasn't really a fulfilling conclusion of the first chapter, and I was left with a feeling of 'was that really it?' when the movie ended. The movie was not as intense and interesting as the 2017 "It: Chapter One" movie was.
I am rating "It: Chapter Two" six out of ten stars.
The actors were great. Even the first few jump scares were decent, and then it just became overkill. And not scary whatsoever. All of the CGI monsters look ridiculous and completely take you out of the moment. I grew up watching 80s/90s horror (AND LOVING IT). The baddies were REAL and TERRIFYING. For example, Mrs. Massey, the bloated bathtub corpse in The Shining. That was a real, completely horrifying image that has stayed with me 30 years after I First saw the movie. I don't understand the obsession with CGI when there's no need for it.
Sadly, this movie was just a drawn out bore.
Stephen King Movies Ranked by IMDb Rating
Stephen King Movies Ranked by IMDb Rating
Did you know
- TriviaBill Hader was unaware that Bill Skarsgård can actually move his eyes in two different directions. Hader asked Skarsgård what kind of editing was done to achieve the effect in the first movie. Skarsgård, in full costume and makeup, responded by saying "Oh, you mean this?" and showed him how he can do it naturally, startling Hader.
- Goofs(at around 2h) When they enter the sewer, Eddie's bandage briefly switches from his left cheek to his right. Also, Beverly's flashlight is in her right hand; in the next shot it's in her left. (Flipped negative)
- Quotes
Richie Tozier: Who killed a psychotic clown before he was fourteen?
Eddie Kaspbrak: Me.
Richie Tozier: Who stabbed Bowers with a knife he pulled out of his own face?
Eddie Kaspbrak: Also me.
Richie Tozier: Who married a woman ten times his own body mass?
Eddie Kaspbrak: Me.
Richie Tozier: Yeah. You're braver than you think.
- Crazy creditsThe Warner Bros and New Line Cinema logos are made of rusted metal, and are set in darkness and illuminated by Pennywise's Deadlights.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Conan: The Cast of 'It Chapter Two' (2019)
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- It: Capítulo dos
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $79,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $211,622,525
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $91,062,152
- Sep 8, 2019
- Gross worldwide
- $473,123,154
- Runtime2 hours 49 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1