IT Chapter 2: A Second Part With More Heart

 The R rating again really lets the material (even fabricated) again shine. We also get to see more peak Pennywise, this time preying on the empathy of a child, which is somehow even more disturbing. 

I like Steven King horror, and always have, which is weird coming from the guy who got a night terror from hearing the Jaws theme for the first time and threw up so that's how I missed my first day of third grade. Though I've always been something of a scaredy-cat I've warmed up to the genre as a whole in recent years, but my favorite example to this day hasn't been a movie, or TV program, it's been a book. IT. As established in my review of the first part of the work I adore the book (weird bits notwithstanding), and was overjoyed to watch the reboot, which covered the first part of the book. With a sequel all but confirmed, my levels of excitement were through the roof, and I have to say, after seeing it on a slow Thursday night, it was definitely worth the wait. An unexpected improvement on the first part, IT Chapter 2 greatly improves on the weakest link in the book and miniseries, maintaining the feeling from the first part in addition to upping the scares and introducing some of the cosmic horror that was missing from the first.

Though I was unsure of the adult Losers at first, but they quickly won me over, Eddie remains my favorite, still being the anxiety-ridden hypochondriac we all love.

It's no secret that the second part of the 1990 IT miniseries was the epitome of forgettable, but did they ever turn it around in Chapter 2. The format of the story is told in much the same way as the books, with frequent, but not constant flashbacks. The flashbacks are also used in pretty much the same way as in the book, with the adults encountering something and experiencing a flashback of when they were children. However, in the book these were used to produce parallel narratives, while here it's just used as flashbacks. It also allowed the film to introduce elements from the book that weren't in the first movie (such as the clubhouse) and brand new elements, such as the 'totems' (which do somewhat slow the action admittedly), which gave the film reasons to do iconic scenes from the book. The flow of the movie is also very much helped by the separate film-format, as now the story right up until the Losers Club reforms just races by. A third of the book is essentially each character's adult introduction and first flashback, which really dragged it down, but here, the whole gang does their reaction to the call for action in about ten minutes, which was perfect. Another welcome addition is the reintroduction and overhaul of the cosmic horror from the book. Yeah, the book had a good chunk of cosmic horror, but that's hard to do so it's ignored in all versions prior to this film. While this film does not do the original confrontation (because two guys battling an interdimensional force of consumption in a psychic Tibetan battle of wills doesn't translate too well), it does do an alternate version which for the purposes of a largely visual medium works really well. It gives our cast something to do, as well as visualizing what was essentially happening, sans mystic space turtle, which is all good by me. They did cut a lot of essentially filler plots, like pretty much all of Bill's wife and Beverly's husband from the book, which helped make the film feel more tight and focused. Also each of the kids/adults are given a much more equal presence in this film (which was a criticism of the first, RIP Mike), to where I'd say that they had pretty much equal screen time I'd wager (though Bill remains ahead a hair I wager). Though this is a horror film at heart, be prepared too for an unusually emotional film. While the theme of friendship and unity was a central theme of the first part, here it's still present in a more mature and much more present fashion. The scenes where the Losers are together are some of the best in the film, and it handles platonic love in friendships really well, with one of the last words in the film being 'I love you man, I'm here for you always'. Really it's an oddly heartwarming film, and the reframing and other changes to Stanley Uris' character were a punch right in the gut. Like the first part, IT Chapter 2 is a horror movie, but it's also a movie about love, support, and the bonds of friendship, which is basically the backdoor into my heart.

The supporting cast is also fantastic, and you can see pretty much an entire scene in the teaser, which depicts Beverly's homecoming in suspenseful and terrifying fashion.

Technically this film does a lot, and you'll be able to see a lot of cinematic elements on display in a clear and present fashion, though the result isn't masterful. The sole strange part of the use of specific elements (though it could be a good thing) was how these they usually appeared only once. There was a scene that involved a good deal of gradual color correction, which looked fantastic, and I've never seen anything like it on that scale before. The totem-gathering sequence does slow the film down, but at the same time I found it to be pretty interesting, as each of the adults seem to be in a different horror movie for each of their feature segments. It may not work for everyone, and does drift into the formulaic, but I thought is was probably the best they could have done without just cutting the individual scare sequences (which are in the book to a large degree as well). There's a lot of dutch angles in this, and a whole heap of strange camerawork that's used appropriately, but much of the film is shot in a standard, non standout fashion. The editing and transitions to and from flashbacks are done really well, with sharp cuts in between and the children and adults used interchangeably. Stan's sequence upon hearing his call to action was probably the best example of this, syncing his sealing of the oath in the past in the with his rejection of the call in the present, all to the theme of the Losers Club. The music in this film is essentially the same as in the first, and audio callbacks to the first film are frequent, but here I found that they were used more effectively. The theme of the Losers Club, which played with the sealing of the oath in the first chapter, now took  a very emotional and warm feeling whenever it appears when the Losers bond, or a more somber note whenever Stan is mentioned. The CGI has also improved from the first, and while it is used more to depict the craziness of Pennywise's various forms, Bill Skarsgard gets to show off his acting chops without cgi several times, which is always a scary treat. Though this film is not exactly a cinematic masterpiece with innovation out the wazoo, I found it to be a great film to be able to see camerawork, editing, and audio techniques displayed in a clear and straightforward fashion. What I'm trying to say is that this could be perhaps a more entertaining way to see filmmaking techniques in action.

The reintroduction of the trippy cosmic elements were some of my favorite in the film. Finally we can see the other side of peak Steven King that isn't the terrible stuff happening (necessarily).

As it should be pretty obvious, I really liked watching IT Chapter 2, and though I was nearly guaranteed to enjoy it (due to my love of the book), it was a standout to me. Like its precursor it makes its own format, which really worked for me, and allowed the story to be more accurate and faithful to the book. As with the first, I strongly recommend this film, though this entry is far more intense than the first, it's also nearly three hours, so know that going into the theatre. You could also probably watch these two films back-to-back, and I heard that there was a supercut in the works, which I'd be most certainly down to clown for that so to speak. Chapter 2 may be closer to a horror film than one, but even through the scares and horror it remains a very good celebration of lifelong friendship.