Formula: It
+ 27 Years
It: Chapter I was a perfect storm kind of movie. It played into
nostalgia. It had great hook and immediately identifiable imagery. WB/New Line
found a nice unclaimed part of the calendar to release it on. When it ended its
run as the highest grossing R-rated Horror movie ever*, I wasn't surprised.
*To be clear, it is nowhere close to The Exorcist adjusted for inflation. The
Exorcist made nearly 3 times as much by that measure and is one of the 10
highest grossing movies ever.
Another advantage of Chapter I ties into one
of my common points about horror movies: Horror works in the discovery phase,
not the resolution. It's easy to scare people when they don't know what's going
on. When they get the gist of it, scares are much harder. That's why horror
sequels are never as good. The two It movies break the story in half.
The discovery is all in Chapter I. The resolution is all in Chapter
II. So, if you want to rate them as horror movies, It: Chapter I is
much better than It: Chapter II.
That leads me to my main point: It: Chapter II
is an adventure movie with some horror elements. That's how I'm going to rate
it and look at it. Because, as a horror movie, it's pretty underwhelming. The
scares have no stakes and rely on all the same tricks as the first movie.
Chapter II
picks up 27 years after the first movie. Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) is the only
member of the group still living in Derry. It turns out that once anyone leaves
Derry, they forget about everything that happened there (a clever and
incredibly convenient story device). So, we catch up with everyone else (who
are all incredibly successful in that way that groups of friends in movies
always are - Seriously, where's the guy who grows up to be a plumber living in
the suburbs?). Mike calls them to return since the clown is back. They don't
actually remember anything about Pennywise until they gather for a dinner in
Derry. While everyone else was able to forget, Mike has spent the last 27 years
preparing for this, studying legends, news, and artifacts for how to kill
Pennywise. So, everyone has to collect some token from their childhood about a
time they'd rather forget. They have to each be alone for this for some reason,
and each token comes with a scary flashback with Pennywise. Once they get their
scares and their token, they have to meet up for some ceremony that's supposed
to kill Pennywise.
This movie is the definition of "plot for the
sake of plot". It's nearly three hours long, because it's determined to do
everything 6 times: once for each character. The logic of Pennywise's actions
doesn't make much sense. Sometimes he's an actual threat and other times it's
all in their head. This only bothered me because it was nearly three hours
long. A two hour movie with redundant plotting I'm ready for. Nearly three
hours: that's just excessive.
I actually did enjoy the movie, except for the
nearly three hour run time. The adult cast was nice. Jessica Chastain and Jame
McAvoy are welcome in any movie I watch. Bill Hader and James Ransome got in
some jokes. I was struck by home much Jay Ryan really did look like a handsome,
grown-up Jeremy Ray Taylor. Isaiah Mustafa is fine, but the movie completely
fails him. He's arguably the most key character, yet the movie is happy to
forget about him for long stretches. He barely gets any interiority. The movie
is good at deflating itself when needed. The way kids handle being scared is
much different than adults. Adults are much more ready to poke holes and
reflect on the absurdity. Chapter II understands that. There are plenty of
flashbacks to the gang as kids too, which I appreciated. The kid cast is way
more fun. I like how, since everyone has essentially forgotten their childhood,
the way the adult group acts is often like children. I don't think I've ever
enjoyed myself as an adult as much as they do at the dinner in the beginning
before the topic of Pennywise comes up. They are still making "your
mom" jokes and bickering. There's something charming about it.
It was also refreshing to see an expensive
horror-adjacent movie. Horror generally goes small both as a budgetary
constraint and because of diminishing returns. It: Chapter II feels big.
It's polished. It frames shots like they are important. It trades off scares
for gravitas. I appreciate that pivot.
One Last Thought: Was anyone else turned off by the opening scene? The
only actual purpose of the scene was to reintroduce Pennywise. I don't see why
they had to make it such an ugly gay-bashing scene. There's nothing
particularly scary about the scene. It's just getting an easy audience
reaction. If anyone can express why that scene bothered me so much, please
explain.
Another Last Thought: I kind of hated how the movie tried to be "in"
on the joke about the ending. A running gag is how James McAoy's books have bad
endings. That's a joke about Stephen King's books and, I assume, about the book
It specifically. My guess is the movie ends differently than the book in
some way. I realize this is supposed to be a fun way for King and the movie to
poke fun at him/itself, but it struck me more as trying to get out ahead of
criticism. Movies and shows often have trouble using meta-references correctly.
Increasingly, "going meta" has been used as a way to get out ahead of
criticism by saying "it supposed to be bad, and since we did it on
purpose, that means it's good." That's not how it works. Sorry.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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