IT: Chapter 2 Impressions

Well I went to a theater and saw a horror movie by myself for the first time. I had a friend tell me all the jump scares so I didn’t need to worry about that most of the time because my little heart can’t take it.

This movie is fine, it never reaches the highs of the original film and is bogged down by some unnecessary beats. I have seen so many people say Bill Hader carries the film but I really think James Ransone as Eddie was one of the standouts. And again Bill Skarsgard is totally lost within Pennywise. I don’t know if we’ll see him inhabit the character again (hopefully not) but I’m sure this character will be iconic for years to come.

I never felt the length of the movie like I had seen in so many little tweet reviews, but that’s probably because of the fresh eyes I had on the film, I know I won’t enjoy spending 45 minutes catching up with characters on repeat viewings. The adults just don’t have the same charm as the children did. That’s not because of the acting, it is all really good, but moreso just the concept of adults fighting something isn’t as appealing as kids working together to overcome this force. Visually it has some cool moments, but it felt clear to me that someone else shot this movie because it didn’t have the same person behind the camera framing the shots. And the CGI is pretty okay. Some moments look good and others look like a budget film, which this movie shouldn’t have. The first one was so profitable that I can’t see any excuse for why they cut corners to realize this CGI. Especially in the de aging of the losers. To keep the kids from looking all grown up they just softened the faces and tried to change their voices and it was glaring to me for a few of them. It removed me from the film, especially when they include scenes from the first film as a direct comparison to how they should look/sound.

The haunting imagery is still in full effect though and it is very creative. That’s one area that I think this film is superior to its predecessor. But mostly it’s on par or below the mark to the first film. It feels very repetitive to that first one, and I can’t help that this movie exists just so we can get the Director’s Cut that combines the two movies like the book and I expect that to really help the storytelling and the adult sections feel more necessary.

It think it’s an easy movie to pick apart but I had a blast watching it, just a fun cool movie. Especially being a fan of the book it was a really cool adaption of it.