It Chapter Two takes place 27 years after the events of the first film, and reunites the Losers Club after Pennywise the Clown - once again played by Bill Skarsgard - returns and begins murdering townsfolk in Derry, Maine. Mike, now played by Isaiah Mustafah, calls his old friends, and Bill, Beverly, Ben, Richie, and Eddie - now played by James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Jay Ryan, Bill Hader, and James Ransone, respectively - all of whom have since forgotten each other and Pennywise, must begin to remember their time together and look for a way to stop the killer entity once and for all.
While the Losers are now all portrayed by different actors as adults, what makes this movie so captivating is just how pitch perfect the casting is here. It feels like the exact same group of people that were first seen in the 2017 hit film. The adult cast members pick up on all the innate little quirks that each of the characters had as children, and when they’re all together, the camaraderie that all these characters once shared is perfectly replicated here. While the film is slightly hurt by the fact that the Losers actually aren’t all together for long stretches at certain points, each of their individual storylines are still certainly fascinating, even if at times, some don’t hit as hard as the others.
By far the most compelling storyline is Richie, which is in part due to the excellent casting of Bill Hader, who is by far one of the film’s scene-stealers. Richie was the funniest character in the first film, and Hader’s fast-paced wit easily makes him once again the funniest character in this film - his exchanges with Ransone’s Eddie easily being the highlights of the film. However, Richie undergoes one of the biggest character arcs in the entire film that elevate him from just being one-dimensional comic relief, and Hader’s handling of the material proves he has some excellent character range.
Ransone is another major highlight of the movie, whose capturing of Eddie’s nebbish personality traits makes him an absolute blast to watch, and has the film’s second-best character arc. The other Losers are also overall really solid here, with Chastain and McAvoy providing some strong leading roles, while newcomer Jay Ryan really leans a lot harder into some of Ben’s personality traits from the first film that also give him some really nice character development. Isaiah Mustafa (yes, the one and only “Old Spice guy”) does a great job as Mike, but his character arc feels the most stunted, and he feels regulated to just spewing exposition at times that, while delivered well, don’t really make him as intriguing of a character this time around.
The film’s use of exposition is easily one of the weaker elements, as it attempts to explain Pennywise’s convoluted origins and the ways in which the Losers could potentially stop him. The movie throws a lot at the audience in terms of backstory, and while it does eventually come together by the end of the film, it does tend to be confusing during the moments in which the story is being first presented. Some of these moments tend to feel a bit corny at times as well, as the film is meant to be somewhat grounded in reality, and these moments have these odd “fairy tale”-like elements that may take the audience out of the moment at times.
Once again, Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise is hands down one of the best things about this movie. He is absolutely creepy as this evil killer clown, and the scares can be truly terrifying at times. He definitely gets a little more to do here, whereas in the first film, he’s seen in spurts, lurking in the shadows, and only around for a few brief seconds before disappearing for periods of time. This time around, while he’s not on screen for such long periods at a time, he’s definitely much more of a dominant presence, and gets in some extended interactions with the Losers. A couple of the scares here and there don’t necessarily work, as they go into generic jump-scare territory, but for the most part, seeing Skarsgard at work is by far one of the film’s highlights.
The story’s formatting is another one of the somewhat weaker elements, and is the one minor issue I had when it comes to the film’s nearly-three-hour run time. Since the Losers are split apart as they need to go on their own separate journeys in order to help remember certain events that occurred twenty-seven years ago, the film becomes slightly formulaic during the second act. One of the Losers will be in a particular setting, remember what happened with Pennywise in said setting years ago, and then immediately have a new encounter with the entity in the present.
These scenes are done very well overall, but they’re played one right after another, and tend to feel a bit predictable after a while. The aesthetic is great, and the scenes do feel terrifying, but in terms of story, it doesn’t feel surprising. Some of these scenes also could have been cut down by a couple of minutes to allow for the pacing to feel tighter. There is also another storyline involving one of the supporting characters from the first film that felt like it could have been cut here to save on runtime. Like with many of these other sequences, the scenes themselves are entertaining on their own, but they didn’t really contribute much to the overall plot, and the film wouldn’t have been affected much had they been cut.
While the primary focus of this film are the Losers as adults, there are still some reoccurring appearances by the child actors as well. The film will flash back to moments that took place during the events of the first film and simply weren’t seen. While the audience may be confused for a moment as to the timeline of some of these events, it is certainly refreshing to see the original cast reunited here, and their interactions are just as much of a joy to watch here as they were in the first film.
The only issue with some of these sequences are how some of the child Losers are de-aged, so they look the way they did during the first film. They appear fine in some sequences, but there are also quite a few where it looks a lot more noticeable that their faces are “CGI’d” and it does tend to be distracting in these moments. It’s not enough to necessarily ruin the sequences in which they are noticeable, but for a movie whose CGI is otherwise pretty spot on, this was one of the more disappointing aspects.
It Chapter Two has some more noticeable issues than the first film did, but overall, it’s still an extremely entertaining continuation of the original 2017 film. It’s still incredibly creepy at times, thanks to a once-again excellent Bill Skarsgard, and the storylines continue to be compelling thanks to a pitch perfect cast of the adult Losers, most notably Bill Hader and James Ransone. There’s an amusing running gag throughout this film that served as an on-the-nose metaphor for the original novel, in which Bill’s books are criticized for being great up until the ending. This film certainly makes it a point to rectify that mistake and is easily one of the most entertaining, and emotionally satisfying, horror movies of the year.
Recommendation: Watch It
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