It Chapter Two

It Chapter Two

Starring Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa

Directed by Andy Muschietti

The Story:
Twenty-seven years ago, the Losers Club defeated the evil demonic clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard), but he promises to return to Derry, Maine again - but they also made a pact to return as well.  Now Pennywise has returned, and a now-grown-up Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) is the only one who remained in the town, and goes to contact the other Losers.  Beverly (Jessica Chastain), Bill (James McAvoy), Richie (Bill Hader), Ben (Jay Ryan) and Eddie (James Ransone) return to the town, but none of them have full memories of what happened there.  Mike tells them that the town is cursed so when people leave, they forget what happened, but they soon recover memories of their fight with Pennywise.  Mike tells them he knows a way to kill Pennywise for good, and each of them embark on their own personal journeys through their past to find the items they need to combat the clown as they also encounter Pennywise again who taunts and threatens them with their darkest nightmares, all of which culminates in a final battle between Pennywise and the Losers.

The Synopsis:
Stephen King has been the stuff of nightmares for decades, a highly intelligent writer who can make anything scary - a dog, a car, and especially an evil clown.  However, the ability to translate his stories from page to screen hasn't been the best, with most of the scariest moments being lost in translation.  "It" - easily his most terrifying novel - was adapted to a made-for-TV miniseries in the 90s with Tim Curry as Pennywise the clown, and while it hasn't hold up over time, his performance is now hailed as iconic.  In 2017, director Andy Muschietti brought "It" to the big screen, and the result is movie history: "It" became the highest-grossing September release film, and went on to earn a staggering $327 million dollar haul, and easily not just became Stephen King's most profitable film, but also the highest grossing horror film of all time.  The film ended with a tease that it'll continue, but this isn't a sequel - it's a continuation of the story, and the result is a bit mixed for viewers: most aren't a fan of the nearly three-hour runtime, but others hail the performances and the story as a whole.  While I agree there were some moments that could've been cut for the sake of time, the thing about movies is that there doesn't need to be a time schedule from start to finish, and I found myself totally engrossed in the story from the start and didn't even look at my watch once.

The film follows the Losers as they're now grown adults and are basically successes in their different fields, as they've grown apart and moved to different areas of the country except for Mike, who's remained in the small town of Derry to await Pennywise's return.  When Pennywise resurfaces, he gathers the Losers together again to bring an end to Pennywise's reign of terror for good.  You might think this is a simple story that could've been told in 90 minutes or less, but it would greatly take away from the deeply emotional story, the strong character development, the stellar performances and the thrills and scares it delivers.

Muschietti had to blend both the past and present together, and the editing techniques he uses to implement this is pure genius: we see a scene happening in the modern time that transcends to the past seemingly without any editing tricks that we notice, and it adds to the natural flow of the story, connecting the past and present as an ever-flowing river.  When the Losers return, they don't have any memories of what happened, but as they spend time in the town the memories also come flooding back and they're faced with a true life-or-death decision: stay and take on Pennywise once and for all, or run and hide.  They struggle between these two decisions as any rational person would do in that situation, which only adds to the natural realism the film develops even though it's shrouded in a story of an evil clown who returns to a small town and kills kids by inciting their worst fears.

Generally a film rises or falls depending on the casting, and again Muschietti had a daunting task in casting the Losers Club both as kids and adults, and we've seen in "It" that he hit it spot-on with the youth casting, as they all gave terrific, tremendous performances that rests in the upper echelon of child actors.  When it came time to cast the older Losers, again Muschietti casts pitch-perfect actors who not only give great performances, but their comradere also seems natural and we can believe that they were friends decades earlier.

Jessica Chastain takes on the role of the older Beverly and completely continues to run with it as perfectly as Sophia Lillis began, giving Beverly a blend of strength and weakness, as we see her adult life not as different than her childhood - married to an abusive man after being raised by an abusive father.  When she returns to Derry, she comes with extra baggage that the others don't possess, and Chastain uses her talents to the best of their abilities and provides a strong performance overall.

James McAvoy also runs the ball that his younger self Jaeden Martell began as Bill, the de-facto leader of the Losers Club, who remains the glue that holds them together.  Bill is now a famed writer whose endings have a lot to be desired (something that King himself often faced from critics), and returns to his hometown ready to bring Pennywise down after remembering what happened to his brother Georgie - even as he holds himself responsible for his death.

Isaiah Mustafa and James Ransone also give great performances as the older Mike and Eddie, with Mike serving as the historian of the group who learns how to defeat Pennywise for good, as Eddie continues his hypochondriac state (he now works as a risk assessor and is married to a woman who seems like his overbearing mother) and also provides some of the film's lighter moments.  Jay Ryan plays the older Ben, who's now a hunky successful architect instead of a shy, chubby kid, but he still harbors secret feelings for Beverly, and we see that even though he's grown a tougher exterior, he still has some issues to deal with on the inside.

The standout performance though comes from Bill Hader, who takes on the character of Ritchie from "Stranger Things" star Finn Wolfhard, and absolutely slays it.  He easily earns the biggest laughs in the film, but also showcases tremendous dramatic talent as well that Hader hasn't really had a chance to do yet - we already know he's funny, but its his inner struggles that really define him as a well-rounded actor here.

Tackling the iconic role brought by Tim Curry is no easy feat, but Bill Skarsgard makes Pennywise his own and re-creates a classic horror icon for this generation.  He's got some fantastic things he can do with his body (such as his now-famous eye movements that literally scared Bill Hader, who thought it was a CGI effect), but he also manages to blend humor and sheer horror in Pennywise's performance that makes him equally unnerving and awe-inspiring, and he performs so well that we actually miss Pennywise's presence when he's not on screen.

While the film's length was a deterrent for most people, for me it was the CGI that seemed rather off, but it was also an issue with the first film as well.  While Pennywise is truly terrifying, his alterations for the Losers went from downright silly (the old naked lady) to just bizarre, and provided laughs but probably not in the way they expected.  I didn't find myself terrorized by them, because they looked obviously CGI, which for moments took me away from the film, but that's the only small nitpick I had with the movie as a whole.  Entirely, it's a more-than-fitting conclusion to the story, filled to the brim with strong performances and a great blend of humor, drama, and horror.

The Summary:
Providing a strong exclamation point to the conclusion of one of Stephen King's most iconic works, "It Chapter Two" delivers the humor, drama, and horror in equal measures and gives us stellar performances by the entire cast.

The Score: A+