Everyone's favourite child-murdering clown is back and this time he's out for the gays.
The long-awaited sequel to the 2017 adaptation to Stephen King’s IT held up to expectations, that is if that expectation was that it would fall flat compared to the joys of IT: Chapter 1. The first film was something special, the cast had a beautiful charm, Pennywise was simple yet scary and the story was changed and adapted enough for it to fit the big screen and make sense. Yes, that meant leaving some factors of the book out but not everything translates well to screen and not everything is relevant to the bigger story. Unfortunately, they didn’t learn from their success and decided that the sequel would follow the book much more to the 'T' than the first which resulted in a film that has you dipping in and out.
Surprisingly the near 3-hour length didn’t put me off and, for the most part, I had a good time watching it. As a fan of the Loser’s Club, it entertained me enough to keep me sat still in the cinema but it’s when it ends you begin to notice the cracks. Going away and thinking about the tale of Derry, all I can see is the increasing problems and faults of the film rather the aspects I liked.
While there were a few problems that stood out to me like Pennywise’s newfound homophobic and fat-shaming tendencies, or perhaps how he lost his ability to scare me, lets not forget all those plot points that seemed to appear from nowhere, or even the half-arsed gay storyline, oh and my favourite story of Ben being obsessed with Bev for 27 years and her only falling for him because of one poem from her childhood.
No, the biggest issue was the unnecessary and overuse of CGI. The beauty of the first film was that it had a smaller budget, therefore, had to find more creative ways to scare audiences. It did this by playing on our phycological fears and clever camera angles. But IT: Chapter 2 received almost double the original budget and I guess decided to blow it on CGI anywhere there could be.
From the crazy, deformed, naked old lady to lots of unnecessary CGI involving Pennywise, it was just disappointing. More so because it wasn’t even good CGI and looked horrendous and took me out of the film because it was more hilarious than terrifying. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m 19 now and no longer a target of potential child kidnappers or the fact that Pennywise just lost his ability to haunt me at night, but there wasn’t anything about IT: Chapter 2 that really unsettled me.
The strong point in this film, and certainly the last, was the story revolving around the Losers and their coming back together to find their bond again. Whenever they were together, kids or adults, the film shone. The most disappointing thing was that for a good portion of the story, they went their separate ways to rediscover their past Derry lives but I think it could have been much more emotional if they all went on that journey together.
However, I will say that this was a nice ending to the 2-part series. It closes the book and you’re not left with many unanswered questions. A subpar sequel but a satisfying end for the Loser’s Club.
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