However, that still left the unadapted adult sections, making this one of the few justifiable instances of splitting one book into separate films. Once again under Muschietti's leadership, and recruiting much of the same team of the first, along with some stellar character actors in the adult roles, maybe Chapter Two of King's story could do just as well. But not everything floats down here, namely a sequel that can't, and in some instances doesn't try, to match that standard.
27 years have passed since the last cycle of It, the ancient shape-shifting monster with a hunger for fear. Once again donning the disguise of Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgard), It has awakened from its slumber, intent on acquiring more sustenance from the small town of Derry. The Loser's Club (including James McAvoy's Bill, Jessica Chastain's Beverly, Bill Hader's Richie, and James Ransone's Eddie among others) have since drifted apart, and forgotten much of their experiences of Derry. But when reuniting in their hometown, and with their memories returned, they decide to fulfill their childhood vow to destroy the monster, all the while It torments them both past and present.
Even as much as I loved the original film, I will concede that It felt like it had chunks missing, and at times could felt like it was rushing to the finish. In hindsight, that does end up becoming a saving grace, as because of its compact nature, it isn't bogged down by unnecessary filler. Funnily enough, Chapter Two suffers from the inverse problem, in that it would *benefit* from tightening itself up. With so much material left on the cutting room floor, the content has elevated the running time to nearly three hours long, and simply put, the movie tries to handle way too much.
Structured in similar format to the first, Chapter Two follows the individual lives of the Losers, and how their lives have turned out post-Derry. Most of them have become quite successful - Bill as a writer and Ben as an architect, even if some of them still have residual drama and psychological hangs-up. Eddie has married a woman just as domineering as his mother, and Bev is in an abusive marriage. This then leads to the eventual meeting of the fully formed unit, and their attempts to thwart It's sadistic hunger. The original film made stellar use of its young cast, and this follow up has some similarly effective use of their older counterparts.
Jessica Chastain is as obvious and perfect a casting choice can be, looking like a dead ringer for Sophia Lillis, and having previously collaborated with Muschietti on Mama. She is truly the heart of this film, giving it a luminous, capable, enriching presence as the group's emotional anchor, with a muted but still fiery determination to face her fears for her and her friends. But the real standout is Bill Hader, continuing on from Finn Wolfhard as Richie. Hader has most of the funniest moments of the film, and his sardonic sense of humor and deadpan bewilderment, a welcome offset to the film's gruesome nature, results in some real laugh out loud moments. But it's also a genuinely affecting dramatic piece for him, with new layers continually peeling back to reshape and deepen his character, with some of the more gut-wrenching emotional wallops in the film.
Elsewhere, James McAvoy serves as the capable group leader as Bill, grappling with his own emotional trauma, having accepted young Georgie's untimely fate, even if new guilt has begun to eat away at him. James Ransone is a spot on reinterpretation of Jack Dylan Grazer's Eddie, and even Jay Ryan's new take as a more handsome Ben, while a bit on the bland side, does provide some sweet scenes, especially matched against Chastain. The only unfortunate outliers are Isaiah Mustafa as Mike, who was already slimmed down considerably from his book counterpart, but especially for Andy Bean as an adult Stanley (Fault of the book or not, this character could have been used much better).
Individually the pieces are strong, but it's when matched together that they really shine. One of the best sequences of the film is their initial reunion at the Jade of the Orient, where the magic has been seamlessly recaptured, and sparks fly like fireworks. However, Chapter Two makes the fatal mistake of keeping them apart for far too much of the movie. About an hour into the film, the Losers separate for an extended amount of time rediscovering their pasts. Because of that lack of shared screentime and chemistry, the film tends to lose a lot of its luster, and until the group finally gets together to give Pennywise what for, a lot of what precedes that is on the dull side.
A lot of this has to do with how bloated the script is. Unlike the original film, which made use of original director Cary Fukunaga's template, this sequel is credited entirely to Gary Dauberman of Annabelle fame. Being given free rein on the script, he leaves no stone unturned in the narrative, which tries to wrap up every dangling thread, or acknowledge as many fan favorite elements from the original story as possible, even if it makes no narrative or structural sense. Like Henry Bowers, who somehow survived a ragdoll fall down a well, and has been committed to an asylum. He could literally be cut from the film entirely, and the only thing you'd lose is your purist points (love the book or not, it's a movie now, and some things were never meant to be deeper than a puddle). There's all sorts of little pieces like that which run up the length, and while it isn't unbearable, it is unjustified. There is no reason this needed to be just ten minutes shorter than Avengers: Endgame.
As such, a lot rests upon Andy Muschietti's abilities as director. Thankfully, it's clear he still has a knack for creating effective horror sequences, but while these pieces may be great in isolation, as a whole, they are much less than the sum of their parts. Everyone's already familiar with the extended meeting with Mrs. Kersh, which has become a staple of the advertising campaign, and scenes like that do well to continue the nightmarish imagery of the first, although the real standout horror bit, for me, was a claustrophobic trek through a funhouse hall of mirrors. This whole sequence feels like Chapter Two's answer to the nightmarish slide projector scene from the first, and really stands out for its creep factor, haunting atmosphere, and gruesome consequences.
That said, those tend to be exceptions more than examples. If you remember the first film, you know it had a number of jump scares laced throughout. Funnily enough, Chapter Two actually depends *less* on them... and yet it still isn't as scary. I think this just has to do with the whole dynamic of the cast. Playing against the teens, everything from the clown to Derry itself feels like a much greater threat, made even more apparent by several flashback scenes, which are scarier than almost anything with the adults. But against grown adults, these things just don't have the same effect. The sense of atmosphere in Derry isn't nearly as pronounced or felt, and taking inspiration from Pennywise's bizarre dance routine of the first, like something plucked out of Evil Dead, at times it just ends up feeling sillier by comparison, which is only one of the problems with Pennywise here.
To his credit, Bill Skarsgard continues to be fun to watch, running with his clown gimmick to its fullest potential, and making great use of his humor and eeriness, even if there's not quite enough room for him to stretch it, at least without getting foiled by heavy CGI or creature effects. But so much of what made Pennywise scary was how much he was kept offscreen. In some cases, the anticipation of his attacks were even scarier than the acts themselves, and the mystery surrounding him compounding it. But little is left to the imagination in the follow-up, which relies too much on him as it gets closer to the end, where they've given him him so much of a spotlight, they've made him boring, which was the worst possible thing they could have done.
In fact, any semblance of terror and atmosphere gets chucked out the window in the climax, which is such a shambling mess that undermines the horror established beforehand, buried under abusive overuse of CGI, and at times is virtually unbearable to look at, with strobe effects that gave me a splitting headache. Thankfully the closing sections recover with some sweet emotional send-offs, but not enough to wash away the aftertaste of that showdown.
It Chapter Two is not a *bad* film, but it is a crushing disappointment. The first chapter was a genuinely inspired and at times terrifying film, a plesant surprise that served as a course correction for mainstream horror. This sequel had all the ingredients to recapture and continue that spirit, but lacks the charm, and scare factor that film had. This film doesn't work, and even though I haven't read the book, I'm not sure the adult sections do either, at least in concept. I'd argue that the best thing they could have done, would have been to solely adapt the child perspective, and abandon everything concerning adulthood. If you ignore the sequel baiting of the original, it can stand just fine on its own, whereas Chapter Two tries so hard to catch that lightning, it has to cannibalize the original for deleted scenes and mine audience nostalgia (which is so weird, because it's only two years old).
This sequel isn't without its pleasures or effective frights, but like Derry itself, the more time you spend with it, the less compelled you feel to stay.
**1/2 / *****
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