Jeremy Ray Taylor

Spoiler Talk: IT Chapter Two (2019)

~ Alyxwrites ~ 1 Comment
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Just as I did for the first IT movie, I wanted to do a spoiler talk for this one as it usually helps me move on from the movie, so I can stop being paranoid lol but also because I just want to dig into it without worrying about ruining it for other people. I haven’t done a spoiler talk in a long time, they’re hard to do when writing, but I had to do one for this. I already did a spoiler free review which you can read in the link below.

Movie Review: IT (2017)

Spoiler Talk: IT Chapter One

Movie Review: It Chapter Two (2019)

This will probably be long by the way. Just saying.

The Story 

It’s been 27 years since the events of the first film. Our Losers have all moved out of Derry, except for Mike and all lead successful lives. I think it makes sense that they’re all successful because they were all smart and resourceful kids and it fits right in with forgetting how weird, bad or traumatic their experiences might have been. I would like an IT 1.5 movie so I can see their actual teenage years lol, all the kids are old enough to do it, or do it in another few years and do it then lol. Anyway, here is where all the Losers start out in the film.

  • Bill is a successful horror writer who can’t seem to write good endings for his books. It’s a running joke that everyone hates them lol. He’s married to an actress who is a redhead btw.
  • Beverly runs a fashion empire with her abusive husband.
  • Richie is a successful stand-up comic, which I saw a reviewer say was “on the nose” because Bill Hader, but Richie was the funny one, so it makes sense.
  • Eddie is a risk analyst which is hilarious but also makes sense lol and he’s married to a woman like his mother (WHO IS PLAYED BY THE SAME ACTRESS AS HIS MOTHER lol)
  • Ben has a successful architecture business. I wish we saw more of this instead of him being “the historian” in the first one. He could have still had that scene in the library and looked at that book in order to see the headless kid. He could have been looking at the History of Derry because he wanted to see what the architecture used to be like or something. I still think that was a weird choice.
  • Stanley, well, I don’t know what Stan does, the movie doesn’t tell you but according to the Wiki, he’s a firm accountant and he’s married.
  • Mike is the Derry Librarian which considering his personality from the first one, I wouldn’t think that’s what he’d do. I just wish they didn’t take away his Historian plot in the first one and give it to Ben because it just seems like a weird transition for him.

So, Mike, hears about body parts being found by the river and bridge, so he goes to investigate, and he spots a piece of a red balloon and sees “Come Home” written in blood on the bridge. So, it’s confirmed that Pennywise is back and doing his thing, so he calls up all the losers. Everyone has a bad reaction to the news, but they all come back except for Stanley. I’ll get into that a little later.

Everyone returns, they have a reunion but Pennywise scares all of them and they don’t want to stay but Mike is determined. He manages to get Bill to listen to him, he thinks that if Bill’s on board then the others will fall in line… which is true lol. He shows Bill, by drugging him, about the Ritual of Chud to defeat Pennywise. Everyone then goes on “spirit quests” to find tokens to sacrifice.

  • Bill gets Georgie’s boat
  • Beverly gets her “January Embers poem”
  • Ben has the yearbook page Beverly signed
  • Mike has the rock that Beverly threw at Henry Bowers to save him (it’s what brought the Losers to Mike lol)
  • Eddie’s inhaler
  • Richie gets a token from the arcade
  • And Bill finds the shower caps Stanley put in their clubhouse to keep spiders away.

They all end up meeting at the Niebolt house to stop Bill from going in himself after Pennywise killed a kid in front of him. They have a moment and then go inside where shenanigans ensue in the house. Good stuff happens here. Then, they all go down in the sewers and the last… 45 minutes maybe is in the sewers. They do the ritual, it doesn’t work because Mike lied about the ritual. I guess they would have to die for it to officially work. He says that the Natives only died because they didn’t believe it would work but if the Losers believed then no one would have to die. Still didn’t work. Pennywise is now a giant Clown-Spider creature and he’s going after everyone. They all run off, some of them go through more horrors, particularly Bill, Ben and Beverly. This is also when Beverly discovers Ben is the one who wrote the poem and that he loves her. Bill faces his brother and his younger self; a great scene and he faces his guilt in the face and overcomes it.

Eddie and Richie have some funny moments together. Everyone overcomes their scares and Richie saves Mike from being killed by Pennywise by “rock war”!

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“Wanna play truth or dare? Here’s a truth, you’re a sloppy bitch! Yipikaye mother f…” and BOOM DEADLIGHTS! Richie is in his trance but it’s different for when he did it to Beverly, Richie starts bleeding and it seems like the intent is to kill this time. Eddie comes out, sees Richie and uses the iron gate… piece? lol to throw into giant Pennywise’s mouth, because he believed the iron could kill monsters, just like Beverly told him to believe it could. Just when everyone starts to rejoice, Pennywise stabs Eddie.

They say the best way to kill him now is to make him smaller so they could effectively fight him. Bill, Ben, Mike and Bev try to get him to go through one of the small tunnels, but he cuts them off so then they basically roast him to size lol. Mike says to Bev “there’s more than one way to make someone small” “make him think that he does” or something like that. Pennywise laughs “Me? Small!? I’m the eater of worlds!” Mike says, “Not to us, you’re just a clown” and he like freaks out for a moment. So, they basically just call him all the things he’s turned into to scare them “An old lady”, “an impostor”, repeating “clown”. It’s like he can’t think straight so he keeps turning into the things they’re calling him. We even hear Eddie shout “LEPER!”, Richie joins in the fight, as Pennywise gets smaller, Richie rips off the claw that stabbed Eddie and Bev’s face in that scene makes me laugh. Pennywise is now super small, scared and weak. Mike reaches in and pulls out his heart, they all crush it together. They go back to Eddie, he’s gone so now they must make it out of the house before everything crumbles. There is no actual way they make it out though… I mean it was falling around them fast, but they make it out (ya know movies) and the Niebolt house is sucked into the void and is gone. Poor Richie is still shouting Eddie’s name. They end up at the Quarry and once again Beverly jumps into the water first. They clean off, Richie cries so they have a sweet moment where they just hold each other. Richie makes a joke about his glasses, everyone dives to find them, and Ben and Bev have a moment where they kiss. Bill sees, he smiles and looks away. They walk back through town, look at their reflection in store glass and it’s their younger selves and then it cuts back to the younger versions after they defeated Pennywise the first time.

Everyone goes back to their lives, Mike calls Bill to check on him and to tell him about Stanley’s letter.

  • Bill seems happier and more confident in himself and he’s gotten past his writer’s block. I do wish they showed if he was still with his wife or not. It didn’t seem like they have a bad relationship, but I do think part of him married her because she reminded him of Beverly, even though he probably didn’t know why. I mean, she has red hair, a fiery spirit and he even says at the beginning “Why can’t you be the woman I want you to be” and he tries to fix it and I was like “oooo, he wishes she was Beverly but doesn’t know he wants that since he probably doesn’t remember her”. But we don’t know if things are better with them, if they’re still together. I’m not sure his ending in the book but I am aware in the miniseries, he does like ride off with her on his bike or something lol. Maybe it’s a deleted scene. I just wanted to see her in the background or something lol.
  • Beverly and Ben are together with his dog and his fancy boat. I think he asks her if she’s okay or happy or something and she’s like “Yes, very” and it’s all cute and what not.
  • Richie ends by re-carving the R+E initials on the kissing bridge, symbolizing that he’s at least come to terms with his sexuality and that he did love Eddie.
  • Mike calls Bill to check on him and tell him about the letter from Stanley. He tells Bill he’s leaving Derry to find his own way, now that everything is over. Not sure what he’s going to do but Mike Hanlon deserves happiness.

They’re victorious but this time they remember everything, and Mike has a great line, “maybe we remember because there’s more good things to remember instead of the bad things” or something like that and that really sums things up. It’s bittersweet though, because Stanley and Eddie both died, but it does a nice job at rounding out what each character had to struggle with and where they are now. Everyone has at least a more secure form of peace and happiness.

Characters

I think this time around the film is more of an ensemble than it was in the first one. Bill and Beverly were the leads in the group but here, I don’t think there is a clear lead. They all kind of get the same amount of love. I’m not going to go into everyone though, just some things I might have noticed that I didn’t include in my regular review.

  • James McAvoy as Bill Denbrough. I have seen people say that when he stutters, it seems like he’s channeling Hedwig (Split & Glass). I don’t see it and I loved him in both those movies (even though Glass is meh). I think he does the stutter well. I think while Bill isn’t the “lead” as he was in the first one, he has a lot of solo moments where he shines, and his character arc gets a lot of development. He has three distinct scenes where we see this. Again, James is masterful as always and I did always manage to find him in the group even if he wasn’t in the forefront. Also, it seemed like Pennywise really had it out for him and I wish we got to see them interact more. Yes, we have the sewer drain and the fun house but Pennywise torments him in that moment and that’s it, I feel like, when Bill says “I hate you” after the sewer drain that Pennywise would have laughed or said “I hate you too” mockingly or something. Or the Fun house would have been a great moment to see Pennywise really dig it in, but I guess by eating the kid in front of Bill and Bill seeing that he couldn’t do anything to stop him or save the kid was enough…
  • Bill Hader as Richie Tozier. Finn Wolfhard suggested Bill Hader when they were asked in interviews who they’d like to play them as adults, and it happened. That’s dope lol. So, his arc deals with accepting who he is and allowing himself to feel comfortable that way. Richie has been confirmed gay in this film and that he liked Eddie. Being that I am on Tumblr and other social media things, I have seen people say that about him in the first one. I never quite got that impression. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t there, I just didn’t pick up on it. They were just two fast talking kids who roasted each other, that’s what kids do, so I didn’t even think about it. I haven’t read the book either to see if that story element was there. Thinking about it, if they decided to confirm Richie’s sexuality, then I can see where in the first they could pull from just as if they didn’t reveal it at all, I wouldn’t have noticed. But I think it was a nice addition to his character and it’s not done in a way that would make you roll your eyes. At least I didn’t. On my second viewing, I did notice how he was extra attentive to Eddie, like in the restaurant, he calls his name. Bill Hader is great though, truly great.
  • Isaiah Mustafa as Mike Hanlon. He stayed in Derry and became the librarian. I really want to know how that happened considering his role in the first one. He was part of the group, but he was a last addition and had such a minor role. It was really sad. His role is much larger here, which I appreciated, and I liked his “frantic/madman” nature. He was trying to get this done, he needed his friends to believe. He almost had a childish quality to him. I really liked the moments with him, and Bill and I would have been interested in seeing them team up more. He and James had great chemistry. They need to be in another movie together.
  • Andy Bean as Stanley Uris. Sooo you can’t really talk about Stanley without spoiling him but he’s the last one to get the call from Mike and he commits suicide. His face when he answers shows he’s terrified. He sits in the tub and he slits his wrists. I feel bad for him because the look on his face is very… sad. We learn that Beverly has seen each of their deaths in her dreams every night, so she knew about Stanley’s death just not when it would happen exactly. I wish, we got to know what everyone else’s death would have been because I’m curious… anyway, I feel bad for Andy Bean lol because he’s in all the press stuff, but he can’t really answer any questions about his character because it would spoil it. He just always looks like he’s chillin in the back during interviews. BUT the ending is where he really gets his moment. Bill gets a letter from Stanley, as does the others, and Stanley narrates his letter. He talks about why he did what he did, he was afraid, and he knew he wouldn’t be much help and they couldn’t defeat IT if they weren’t unified, so he removed himself from that equation to ensure their victory. It was a lovely letter, very sad and I get it.
  • Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown / “It”. I do agree with other reviews that it seems like Pennywise, as the clown, as Bill Skarsgård, isn’t prevalent as much as he could have been, but I think that’s okay. He’s supposed to be scary and if you see too much of him then it’s no longer scary… for those who get scared. I also love the fact that he’s pissed… clearly. Whenever he’s Pennywise and he encounters a Loser, he’s angry. With Beverly he has this whole set up in her house which was intricate. When he first encounters Richie, he really teases him with his inner struggles. As I said, I think he had it out for Bill the most, because he torments him. He put Georgie out there to lure Bill to the drain, he threatened Bill with that kid’s skateboard, and he killed that kid in front of Bill. I mean, torment. I really wish that after Pennywise ate that kid in front of Bill and the lights came up that it was still glass instead of a mirror and Pennywise could be standing there, with a smile or something. I feel like there should have been another exchange between them. I guess Bill overcoming his guilt was enough. I just think that Pennywise’s scares for the Losers could have been more… with the intent on really getting them. In the sewer he does more to try and kill them, but I feel like he should have been doing that from the beginning. That’s just my thoughts.

The Scares.

I love how they said this movie has way more scares and is scarier than the first one, but I don’t agree. The first one is much scarier, at least I wasn’t as bothered during the sequel as I was during the first one even though I love the first one. Each Loser has their solo scares but then they also have scares together. So, everyone has their group scares which is in the Chinese restaurant and then when they’re in the sewers and it’s just scary all around lol.

  • Bill: So, Bill has the Sewer Scene, the Fun House (I’ll go into details about those later) and the moment in his basement where he watches Georgie talk to young Bill about the night he died. It was shared that Bill pretended he was sick because he didn’t want to play, and he felt guilty and Georgie just shouts, “You lied, and I died!” Bill tries to talk to his younger self but sees he’s controlling Georgie like Pennywise did in the first one, like a puppet. Then of course, Georgie spins around and his face is gross. Bill then drowns him. He and his younger self have a talk, his younger self tries to kill him, but it doesn’t work so then Bill shoots his younger self in the head, his way of letting go of his guilt and then younger Bill turns into a creepy Pennywise face. Bill goes back into the water and comes back to Pennywise’s lair. Here, I think it’s important to note that I don’t fault Bill for what happened to Georgie and I don’t think he should be condemned for it. Sure, he’s going to feel bad because he didn’t want to play and he couldn’t protect his brother, but that doesn’t make him a bad person. He was a kid. When you don’t want to do something with someone, people often make up excuses that aren’t the truth. Let’s not act like Bill is this horrible person and should feel bad because it was revealed he pretended to be sick. Now, the only problem I have with this reveal is that there wasn’t any indication that he was faking in the first one, which I guess is the point but I wouldn’t have questioned it as much if it seemed like he was faking it then. It might have been an afterthought which is the problem, but not the reveal itself.
  • Beverly: She goes to her old house to find her poem. An old lady is living there. She lets Bev in, and while Bev is in the house, you see shots of the old lady watching her from down the hall and then she would walk away doing some weird disjointed movements. The lead up is all good stuff. They have a talk; the woman flashes her chest and you see she has some weird skin issues going on. Bev sees pictures of the woman as a little girl with her father who looks an awful lot like Pennywise and then the woman is in her dark kitchen and says “I’ve always been daddy’s little girl. ARE YOU DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL BEVERLY?” and you just hear heavy footsteps and she comes out the kitchen and I think I laughed a little. She looked ridiculous. The CGI really didn’t do any favors here, I was expecting it to be scarier than it was. She chases Beverly around the house. Oh, the giant lady is naked too. Bev tries to escape but the door is locked. Down the hall, another door opens, and a man is in there, he talks to her and he starts putting on white makeup and rips his face open to mimic Pennywise’s red lines and he says some words and Bev escapes. She also has the scene in the bathroom with the blood and while she’s locked in there, the door keeps being pushed open by people who have scared her or affected her in the past. It’s a pretty good scene.
  • Richie: In a flashback, we see Richie get scared by the Paul Bunyon statue in the park after he was chased out of the arcade by Bowers. He also is the only one in the solo scares who Pennywise graces with his presence as an adult.
  • Eddie: He goes to the pharmacy, he goes into the basement and we get a flashback of him as a kid. He hears his mother calling for him. The basement is all weird, dark and creepy. It has blood drips and needles. His mother is trapped to a standing gurney and the leper is chained behind a curtain. It keeps getting closer though. It eventually affects the mom with… grossness by sticking its tongue down her throat. Gross. Little Eddie runs off lol. Adult Eddie faces the leper, but he almost gets the best of him, but the leper cheats by throwing up on him and disappears lol.
  • Ben: He doesn’t get an adult solo scare until the end when the clubhouse tried to swallow him up. He gets a flashback in the school, where Bev shows up, they talk, he tries to kiss her, she calls him a “fatty” or something and she sets herself on fire and chases him down the hallway. He hides in his locker, he pulls out the yearbook page and Pennywise is in the locker with him. He escapes though.
  • Mike: We don’t see any scares for him. We see a flashback when he was a kid and his parents died in the fire but that’s about it. He does face off with Henry in the library but nothing that is scary because he’s no longer scared as he tells Pennywise at the end.

The Fight

At the end, we get of course, their final battle with Pennywise and it’s much longer than it was in the first one. The others find Bill as he’s ready to kill Pennywise and he has a speech and he’s stuttering a lot, which juxtaposes his speech in front of the house in the first one where he doesn’t stutter at all. I think it shows just how upset and scared he was as an adult compared to when he was ready as a kid. They go inside the house and end up getting split up. Richie, Bill and Eddie and Mike, Beverly and Ben. Pennywise starts carving “Home at last” on Ben’s stomach, bringing that H for Henry Bowers back and young Stan’s head turned into a spider creature trying to attack the other three lol. Eddie is so scared that he just stands in the corner while Spider-Stan attacks Richie, Bill is trying to pull him off, Ben comes in the clutch and kills Spider-Stan or stuns him at least. Bill then goes to shout at Eddie, about people dying and him not helping. I saw someone say that Bill wouldn’t have done that, and I disagree. He had every right to do that. He remembered his brother died, Dean was killed in front of him and he’s trying to save his friend and his other friend is cowering. Don’t get me wrong, Eddie had a right to be scared too and when Eddie said, “I was so scared, please don’t be mad Bill,” Bill’s face was like… okay, we gotta stick together and he says, “Don’t let him have that, that’s what he wants.”

So, I told y’all how the way they beat Pennywise is that they roasted him to size… lol yes, they did. I think they do other stuff in the book, I’m pretty sure they do something in the miniseries, but I get why they did this. I mean, sometimes you must face your fear in order to make it no longer scary. I mean, yes, they kicked the crap out of him in the first one, but they only wounded him so perhaps it wouldn’t work that way this time? I mean, who’s to say? I might feel like it’s an underwhelming ending to this crazy killer clown, but I like the fact that they beat him by making him afraid of them. They beat him at his own game.

The Love Triangle.

Bill & Beverly: Okay, so if you remember from the first film, Bill and Beverly like each other. It’s clear right from the start when he sees her again, and she’s walking towards them in slow motion and Bill’s all dopey eyes and what not. I thought it was cute and Jaeden Martell and Sophia Lillis had great chemistry. A lot of the time, they were together, or they stood near each other, or they had each other’s backs. She was willing to fight Pennywise with Bill and was on his side. He also liked her. They shared little looks and what not. SO, now in this one, 27 years later, they’re both married. Bill is married to a redheaded actress and Beverly is in an abusive relationship. When they all return, they share a few looks, they have a private conversation at the restaurant, they share a very nice kiss, like their last kiss we see in the first movie. They also show us flashbacks of them riding a bike together, it’s cute. So, we see that they have feelings beyond the first movie. During their kiss, Bill does pull away which could mean- “We’re both married, we can’t do this” OR “why are you kissing me when they’re kids dying and a killer clown out there” lol. James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain do have chemistry. I feel like I wanted them to be together in the end, but I understand why they’re not, at least on Bill’s end.

Ben & Beverly: In the first one, we are aware that Ben has a crush on Bev from the moment she signs his year book. He often looks at her, especially if she and Bill share a moment. He writes her the cute poem and everything. Beverly thinks Bill wrote it because she likes him and he likes her, I don’t think she even thinks that Ben wrote the poem. So, in this one, the Losers must go and grab tokens that meant something to them as children to sacrifice to take down Pennywise and Ben’s is the yearbook page that Beverly signed. It was the only thing he didn’t forget because he took it with him when he left Derry. Throughout the movie, he would give her looks, whenever she and Bill were off together or talking, he would look all jealous and stuff. Well, lol more like longing. When Bev tells him, she thought Bill wrote the poem, he was all like “Bev nooo, I wrote it” lol but he doesn’t say anything. Later, when they’re throwing their stuff into the fire, Bev tosses in the poem (it meant a lot) and then Ben tosses in the yearbook page and she realizes it was the one she signed and she’s all like

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lol. Then later, everyone gets forcibly split up. Bev gets thrown back into the bathroom stall from when she was a kid and the stall starts filling up with blood. Ben gets thrown into the clubhouse he built, and it starts filling up with dirt. I guess he could hear her screaming and while he’s sinking, he’s calling out to her as she’s terrified. He then starts reciting the poem which gives her life and they save each other. They share a moment and at the end, they end up together.

So, I have a problem with how this was handled. I don’t mind that Ben and Beverly got together in the end, but my problem is that we never got to see Beverly really reciprocate those feelings. I never like when two people (A&B) like the same person (C) and C thinks A wrote them a love letter or a poem when really B wrote the poem but C clearly likes A anyway and A likes them back, the poem just helped to further those feelings, but then somewhere down the line C finds out B wrote the poem and now C is in love with B… I hate that because most of the time, B & C don’t really share that kind of relationship, at least not that the audience sees. It’d be different if Beverly and Ben flirted more or had more than a friendly connection because while Ben clearly likes her, I never thought that Beverly clearly liked him or even felt the same. For Bill, yes but not for Ben. I just don’t like how that was handled. I rolled my eyes hard when we see Ben and Ben on a boat together at the end. I joked “Oh you like him now because he’s hot lol”.

Favorite Scenes

I particularly love the Chinese Restaurant scene because this is the first time everyone is back together and they’re remembering each other and their history and just having a good time. It’s the first scene where you really see the adult actors sitting in these characters we’ve come to love thanks to the young actors. Then things get serious when they talk about why Stanley isn’t there, and Mike starts talking about why he brought them back. Everyone acts all funny when he starts talking about Pennywise, like they forgot why Mike called them back though he literally told them over the phone. Anyway lol, they start talking about fear and how they didn’t remember things until they came back. They open their fortune cookies and get a message “Guess Stanley couldn’t cut it” which prompts the cookies to start cracking open revealing little gross creatures. It’s so great because everyone is freaking out and I love the part where Ben is kind of hiding behind Eddie (mind you, he’s much taller and muscular lol) and he’s swatting at the flying creature lol. In the fish tank are floating heads and Bill and Mike both freak out. Then Mike starts hitting the table with a chair “IT’S NOT REAL!” Man, that’s a great scene. It’s weird but not scary.

There’s also this kid “Dean” who says, “Hey Richie, the fun’s just beginning” and he gives a creepy smile which causes Richie to shout at him thinking it’s a Pennywise thing and it’s just a kid who’s a fan of his stand up. This kid is important for later.

The Sewer Drain is during the series of moments where each Loser goes their own way to find their tokens to sacrifice for the ritual. Bill finds his bike in an antique shop (Stephen King cameo), he goes off riding and comes across his old house, where he sees Dean on the law. He also rides past the drain where Georgie was taken. We get a flashback with young Bill demanding to know from Pennywise WHY he took Georgie, he’s screaming and crying, and he does a great job. “WHY HIM!”. He starts to walk away and Pennywise says “Why? Because you weren’t there.” Gosh it’s so good. Then we cut back to adult Bill and he starts to walk away but then he hears Georgie’s voice “Billy, I’m still here, help me” and he’s like “Omg, Georgie??” and he moves closer to the drain, and he sees Georgie’s hands reaching for him, with the boat,

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the music here is beautiful by the way. Of course, Bill reaches for him while Georgie is saying “Help me! He’s coming!” and Bill is reaching into the sewer, trying to grab his hands, and he’s like pretty far in that thing. It’s shocking really. Then of course, a crazy hand grabs his arm and tries to pull him into the sewer and a bunch of kid hands start grabbing him too. Almost his entire upper body was pulled into that thing lol, I was bruh, you are a whole adult, how can you even fit? It’d be different if Pennywise made it bigger to be able to pull Bill in. If he did do that, then I needed to see that lol. But Bill manages to escape and now he has the boat in hand too. “I hate you!” he’s crying. Man, James McAvoy is great. I love him. Also, the kid who lives in his house, Dean, talks to him and Bill shouts at him to not go near the sewer and to tell his parents to leave town. That kid was having a bad two days lol. He got yelled at by two adults lol.

Now, the Fun House is also a great sequence. They show a bit of it in the trailer. Bill goes back to the Inn after his sewer sequence. He and Beverly kiss. He pulls back, I’m not sure if it’s because their kiss isn’t the same as when they were kids, or if he remembered they’re both married. I’m not sure but his expression was interesting. Let me know what you think his expression meant in that scene. The moment is cut short when a skateboard comes down the staircase. Bill recognizes it as the one Dean rode on his way to the carnival, there’s blood on the bottom and it says, “Won’t be there for him either?”. It prompts Bill to run off. So, he takes off to go find Dean and he sees him go into the fun house at the Carnival Canal Days. Bill goes after him, he almost gets taken out by those swinging clowns lol.

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He then gets to the hall of mirrors and he sees the kid and tries to run to him but of course runs into glass. He squeezes through a narrow passage, claustrophobia anyone? And he gets to the kid, runs into the glass again and it’s clear the kid is boxed in. During Bill’s search, you can see Pennywise also going through the area. The music they play for when he walks by is great lol. Dean is like “What are you doing here? Why are you following me?” and Bill stutters he’s trying to help. Then you hear a squeaking noise and we all turn to see Pennywise at the other side. It’s literally the worst noise ever.

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So, Bill pleads with him, while Pennywise starts bashing his head against the glass. Asking him to take him instead. “I’m here now take me” but Pennywise is a little jerk and he gives his little smile, this kid is screaming by the way, and then he breaks through the glass and eats the kid right in front of Bill, who was trying to break the glass on his side. It’s a horrible moment and you really want Bill to succeed save the kid even though we all know he isn’t going to be able to. Now he’s even more invigorated to stop Pennywise since there’s another kid he lost, and he feels even more guilty.

These scenes are so great. The first really establishes our group and their friendship while also kick starting what we all came here for. A rematch of the Losers Club vs Pennywise. The other two are my favorites because I really like what they did with Bill. I keep seeing that people think he isn’t the focus as much as he was in the first one and while I agree with that in ways, I don’t think that means he didn’t have anything to do. The sequel was way more of an ensemble minus Stanley compared to the first one where Bill and Beverly were the leads. I just think Bill is stuck in the same place he was in the first one in his crushing guilt. His arc throughout the film is coming to terms with what happened and finally realizing it wasn’t his fault and it never was. No matter how many times Pennywise tries to make it seem so. Plus, I love James McAvoy so I might be a little biased, but he did so well in both those scenes, I really felt for him both times.

The Opening Scene

So, I feel like maybe I should mention this since it’s such a big deal. When the movie starts, we get a flash of young Beverly floating in the deadlights and a wonderful transition into the Canal Days Carnival. There are two guys on a date at this carnival. This group of weird looking kids/young adults who start to bother them. Adrian says something smart then he’s pulled away by his boyfriend. While they’re on the bridge, the hooligans come back and basically beat them up, especially Adrian and they dump him into the river. The boyfriend goes to the riverbank to save him, but we get this great shot of Adrian looking at someone on the edge.

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It’s Pennywise, and he helps Adrian out of the water. The boyfriend sees that Adrian’s been helped, and then Pennywise takes a chunk out of Adrian’s side. He’s dead dead.

Soooooo, I don’t know if this happens in the book. I heard it does, but I think it’s important to note that this kind of thing happens in Derry. This scene is show Number ONE: The evil and hatred in Derry is amplified due to Pennywise’s presence. This is talked about in the first one and shown considering how people seem so “over it” or they just don’t care. I mean, kids keep disappearing and no one is looking for them, outside of Betty Ripsom’s mother. NUMBER TWO: Pennywise was in hibernation for 27 years and was probably slowly healing and weak due to his last battle with the Losers, so he was probably super hungry. He isn’t limited to just kids, he can scare them and play with his food to make them taste better. Adrian was already hurt, thanks to those hooligans so he was easy prey. I mean… I don’t think it meant to offend anyone, that’s just how it is in this town. That’s just my two cents on that.

The Runtime. 

This movie is 169 minutes or about 2 hours and 50 minutes long. I mean, it’s long but that didn’t bother me at all because I can handle long movies (except Endgame apparently because I went to the bathroom during the movie BOTH TIMES I SAW IT lol) but I read there is an even longer cut and I want to see the entire movie, especially the stuff that was cut. I feel like there is a ton of things that were left out. It might feel long to others but that didn’t bother me. I want to see the first one and second one in one big 6-hour long film lol.

Overall

The first one is still better but this is a nice follow up and a nice conclusion. There could have been better elements, particularly the CGI and maybe some storytelling elements, like how for a good chunk of the middle, the formula repeats itself, but I think it’s still a good film.

Okay so that’s my Spoiler Talk on It Chapter Two.

Let me know your thoughts below! Was there something I missed you wanted to talk about? Say it in the comments!

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Movie Review: It Chapter Two (2019)

~ Alyxwrites ~ 2 Comments

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Summary: Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.

You can read Movie Review: IT (2017) , Spoiler Talk: IT and Spoiler Talk: IT Chapter Two.

Pros:
Cast and Characters.
  • The Losers’ Club.
    • James McAvoy and Jaeden Martell as Bill Denbrough. While Richie was my favorite kid in the first movie, I actually think James McAvoy was my favorite adult. They gave him a lot of emotional things to go through and he’s so good at that that I was so invested in his journey throughout the film. As a kid, he had a stutter that as he grew bolder, he was able to speak without it. He is the leader, even though the actors say they all are, which is true, but let’s be real, Bill’s the leader lol. He’s smart, resourceful and determined. He started out wanting revenge for the death of his younger brother and when he finds out it was an actual entity; he was determined to take it down. Jaeden Martell was great as Bill, very likable and soft which works for his character because he’s like a leader who has to grow into his role. We get a lot of flashbacks with him and there’s one where Jaeden and James actually get to act together and that was one of my favorite moments in the film. They are the only ones to really get to work with the other actor of their character and it was really great. As an adult, he’s a successful mystery novelist and is married to a successful actress, Audra Phillips. It’s clear that he hasn’t quite gotten over Beverly even if he doesn’t quite remember her due to a line he says to Audra. He also has a hard time writing good endings because I mean, he hasn’t really experienced one lol. I liked that that had to do a lot with his development. He’s the first one to get called and the first one to come back and he’s also the first one to be more on board with everything. I loved his scene with Mike in the attic of the library with the visions. Wonderfully acted by both actors. I also loved that throughout the film as he lost his nerve and became more afraid, his stutter came back full force and HE DOES SUCH A GREAT JOB! GOSH! I love me some James McAvoy and I was so invested in him. I mean, I know Chastain got top billing but he knocked it out of the park. I loved the strength he had in trying to pull everyone together at the behest of Mike. I love that he had to learn what happened wasn’t his fault, because he feels such crushing guilt. I also really loved the Fun house scene with him because it was something added just for this movie for us to see not only how Bill feels responsible but also lights a fire under him. Oh, the scene at the storm drain was also a great scene too. Man, he’s so good.
    • Bill Hader and Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier. He was my favorite character from the first movie and I really liked him a lot in this one too. My biggest issue was that while Richie was involved way more than both Stan and Mike, he didn’t get as much development as the others. As a kid, he was a loud and foul mouth which got him into trouble a lot. He’s Bill’s best friend, which I thought was evident in a lot of their conversations, their fight and his awesome speech at the end, Finn Wolfhard did a really great job in this role and I love that fact that his idea of Bill Hader playing Richie as an adult actually happened which was great casting. We get a few flashbacks where we see Richie encounter Pennywise in monster form, as well as dealing with other character moments which were pretty nice and I thought Finn handles that emotional moment wonderfully. It’s very subtle but I think it’s clear to understand. Plus, he’s a boss at running away from things thanks to Stranger Things lol. Adult Richie is a successful stand-up comic in LA and he’s very similar to how he was as a child. He’s still foul mouthed and still makes jokes, even in the worst of the times… which to get off point for a moment, I know the “Beep beep Richie” is the Losers’ way of saying “Shut up” to Richie but no one literally says that in the first one other than Pennywise and it was just random. Just an Easter egg I guess, but I suppose fans were upset it wasn’t used properly before Pennywise’s taunt and they randomly included it in this and I was like “Wait… I’m glad you used it but it was so random because no one else has ever said that to him” just something I’d thought I’d mention lol. Bill Hader was really good, I quite liked him as well and I liked that he was still similar to how he was as a child where he’s against this but when it comes down to it, he has everyone’s back. It was pretty cool seeing Bill Hader in a role like this. He is definitely someone I have found myself thinking about a lot after I saw the film. A standout to me.
    • Jessica Chastain and Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh. As a child, she was physically and sexually abused by her father. She’s his “little girl” and all that. She was bullied at school due to rumors of promiscuity. She was the love interest of both Bill and Ben with her being more into Bill. Sophia Lillis was great as Beverly as she became a strong member in the group, she was brave and always willing to charge in with Bill. I personally think Amy Adams would have been better cast, as Sophia looks more like her but whatever lol. Jessica Chastain was fine, I thought she fit into the group just fine and that she did well with a lot of Beverly’s emotional moments. I did find myself rolling my eyes at her being overdramatic sometimes but I think my favorite moment of her was in the beginning when the Losers all get together again in the restaurant, it was very reminiscent of Sophia Lillis’ Beverly. Also, I hate to say it lol but the scene in the bathroom during the last third as well.
    • Isaiah Mustafa and Chosen Jacobs as Mike Hanlon. I am so happy that Mike’s role was larger in this because he was grossly underused in the first one. There’s not much to say about him as a kid other than, he was the strong silent type and came off as the protector being that he was bigger than the others. As an adult, he stayed behind in Derry as the librarian and has made it his mission to keep track of Pennywise so he could call the others back if he needed to. He almost has an eccentric quality about him because he’s been so hyper-focused on this for so long. I liked Chosen Jacobs, I thought he did well with what he was given but they still didn’t give him his due even in the flashbacks. ANYWAYS, I am proud of Isaiah Mustafa because he was great. He pulled off the manic and sweet personality that Mike has. A gentle giant in ways just because he’s a big guy lol. He had some really great scene with James McAvoy and I would like to see them partner up in the future in some other movies, they had great chemistry. He has some really strong scenes towards the end.
    • James Ransone and Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie Kaspbrak. He is a hypochondriac and is over exaggerated in how he always thinks something is wrong with him lol. As an adult, he is a successful risk assessor and married a woman similar to his mother (who is played by the same woman who played young Eddie’s mom lol). Eddie was clearly a fan favorite from the first film because JDG was great with his quick-fire comments, witty replies and his little ticks. I mean, him and Richie are the two I immediately think of when I think of the first movie because they were really good. He’s very funny and I thought James Ransone did a great job portraying an older version of the Eddie we’re used to. He clearly paid attention to JDG and tried to really capture some of his ticks and how he delivers his lines because I thought he managed to pull it off. He’s really quick with a lot of retorts, he’s funny without trying to be funny and I like that his arc centered around being brave because he had that issue in the first one too but it’s magnified in this one.
    • Jay Ryan and Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben Hanscom. As a kid, Ben was bullied for being overweight, but he was a sweet kid. He was into history and he got “inducted” into the Losers’ club after he finds them when he escaped from Henry Bowers. I thought JRT had this innocence and likability about him that helped his character even though he might have been a little forgettable at times. He has a great flashback scene in the school though lol. As an adult, he is fit and a successful architect. We get some flashbacks to see how he got into that. Jay Ryan plays adult Ben and I think he was the weakest actor out of the bunch and I also thought he didn’t belong a lot of the time, I’m not sure why but I often forgot he was there. When he inserts himself in the scene, he does have this likability about him and he comes off very earnest… but I don’t know lol. But I won’t put him in the cons because I still liked him, he was fine. He had a lot of quiet moments with Chastain to showcase more of how he feels about her and to show us that he’s been lonely for his adult life and all of that is great. But honestly, outside of kind of pining and then kind of being someone to be a bit encouraging, he was just fine.
    • Andy Bean and Wyatt Oleff as Stanley Uris. So, we don’t really get the chance to know Andy Bean’s version of Stan as much as the others, but I have to say, he is spot on casting physically because he looks like he’s related to Wyatt lol. We get to see a lot of Wyatt in flashbacks and I’m glad because it helped his character since he didn’t get a lot of screen time and other things in the first one. He was the stick in the mud of the group but he was very wise and both actors manage to pull that off in the little we get to see of him.
  • Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. He is an ancient monster that awakens every 27 years to feed on the fear of children it murders. Pennywise the clown is clearly it’s favorite form because he gets to have more fun lol. He does a lot of scaring in the first film and gets overpowered and injured but he comes back with a vengeance and he haunts the town of Derry. When the Losers come back, he begins to haunt them as well. He wants revenge for what they did to him all those years ago. I mean, he pulls out all the stops on them. Being that he is a shapeshifter, he takes the forms of many creatures in this film. Some of which we’ve seen before. I think one of the most interesting things about him is when he’s luring people in, he’s very charismatic (creepy) and he appeals to certain natures within that person. However, when he’s with our Losers, whether it be in flashbacks where he’s tormenting them, after they defeated him that first time, or in present where he’s back, he’s really trying to terrify them to get them back for what they did. Bill Skarsgård is amazing. He still does that eye thing which I’m used to now but still off-putting and then he makes some great facial expressions and coupled with the makeup… it’s a lot lol. I still don’t like clowns and if Pennywise ever showed up around me, I’d freak out but at least in the movies, I enjoy watching him do his thing. The voice, the body movements, his presence, it all works. Sometimes he comes off a little silly, particularly when they do the face thing with the teeth but otherwise, he’s a great villain. He does take the form of other creatures in the movie.
Intense Adventure. This movie has a lot of adventure elements, especially when it gets to the last third of the film. When they enter the sewers, the action is going down and it’s handled really well actually. Sure, there are a lot of horror elements in the last act but it’s also very physical and the characters have to do a lot. I was really into it and invested in watching them defeat this monster. It’s definitely bigger than the climax in the first one and we get to see the characters go off on different sections of adventures, some things we’ve seen already from the first film and other are new things. I mean, it’s pretty nonstop once they get into the sewers so be ready for a fast-paced adventure in the last 45 minutes.
Character Chemistry… sometimes. I think the adults manage to have chemistry in some aspects of the film but not always, so I will mention this later. James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain have worked together before and they have chemistry, friendly and romantic which is important since Bill and Beverly had something when they were kids. Bill Hader and James Ransone play off each other really well as while I thought Richie was Bill’s oldest friend and vice-versa, Richie and Eddie seemed to be closer and that shows in this one too. Isaiah Mustafa played really well off of everyone, especially McAvoy as they had a lot of scenes together and Jay Ryan fit in where he could get in… sometimes lol. A great scene though is when they all are in the Chinese restaurant and they just are having a great time, I believed they were all great friends. I also love group shots lol.
Chinese Restaurant/The Fun House/Storm Drain Sequence. Once all the Losers make it back to Derry, they meet at a Chinese restaurant to have dinner and it’s a great sequence because we get to see them fall back into their old ways, remember each other and their childhood and it’s a great scene for all the actors to just live in their characters. It was probably the scene where you see them the most like their kid counterparts. It has a lot of stuff happening, emotional moments, light and comedic moments and of course the scares which was creepy and everyone did well in freaking out about it. I sat in my chair like O.O the entire time. As for the Fun House, you see this part in the trailer, where Bill is in a hall of mirrors trying to save a little boy from Pennywise and it’s such a good scene. It really adds more to Bill’s character and the guilt he feels for Georgie. I read that it was a scene they added last minute, it doesn’t show and I think it was necessary to have. Bill has a lot of internal struggle and this scene really shows all of that. Pennywise is taunting him, and he’s in the fun house to eat this kid and Bill is trying to save him. He ends up getting stuck to watch this kid scream as Pennywise is on the other side of the glass. It’s a great scene and James McAvoy is so good in that scene. He is masterful and I really felt his fear. The kid did a good job as well and of course Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise was good in the scene too. The storm drain scene where Bill goes by his old house and he sees the storm drain where Georgie went missing and he stares at it for a moment. There’s a flashback which Jaeden does a great job acting in. Adult Bill has a moment and I can’t spoil it obviously but gosh it was so good.
The Horror Elements. Obviously, it’s a horror film so there are supposed to be scary elements. Now, with that said, depending on how scared you are, they may not scare you. I really only jumped maybe once in the film and it was towards the end with the “Not Scary At All”, “Scary” and “Very Scary” doors lol. It was what was behind the second door that got me lol. OH! I’m sure you remember the trailer with the old lady, that entire sequence was frightening, all the buildup that led to her reveal was great stuff because you can see her in the background doing weird movements and it’s an entire trip. Her actual reveal was pretty silly, I think I laughed, but everything leading up to it was unsettling. I think the biggest thing this movie does really well is the buildup to things. Pennywise surely takes out all the stops when it comes to going after the adult Losers because he wants revenge but the anticipation of what’s going to happen gets you more than what actually happens, at least, I think. This happens in the locker with Ben, the pharmacy with Eddie, the park with Richie and of course the storm drain with both versions of Bill.
Good Humor. Just as the first one was funny; this one is very funny. I mean, with Bill Hader it was bound to be funny. A lot of the humor goes to both Hader and James Ransone as Richie and Eddie respectively. They both really feel like adult versions of their kid actors. I think Ransone really tried hard to really emulate Jack Dylan Grazer’s quick-fire reactions and witty comments and he managed it most of the time but JDG is so great lol. But anyway, even when they’re not spouting off jokes, they have great facial expressions or even moments that help dissipate the horror. Not to mention, some things that were meant to be scary turned out funny.
The Flashbacks. So, we get some flashbacks with the kids from the Loser’s club which is great because I saw the first one because of the kids. We get to see some scenes we saw in the first one but we also get a lot of new scenes. A lot of them is with the losers on their own, after they defeated Pennywise that first time but he comes back to get in a few more scares. Or at least I think it’s after they defeated him, I thought one of the scenes made that clear but it also is a little confusing because it’s like “they defeated him where he went into early hibernation but he came back just to torment them a few more times??” I don’t know, but either way, I liked the flashbacks. It’s clear they did some de-aging on the kids because it’s been two years since filming and some of them have changed, particularly Finn Wolfhard lol. I mean look at him in the first movie and then look at him now. Some characters get more flashbacks than others, more like little moments than scenes but we still get to see more of them and what their lives were like. Stan has a great flashback during his Bar Mitzvah and I was like Yass Stan the Man. Great scenes.
Cons:
Too Long. This movie is 169 minutes or about 2 hours and 49 minutes long. I mean, it’s long and I think you would be aware that it is. It didn’t really bother me but I wanted to put it here because I’m sure people will complain about it.
Fluctuating Chemistry. I don’t think it’s like horrible or anything but I do think there are times when certain characters just don’t seem to fit as well. It happens every now and then and maybe it had to do with the conflict with the characters in the film but there are times where it’s like “wow, y’all look uncomfortable together” and like I said, it might be the writing. However, Jay Ryan was such an outlier with this group it was pretty noticeable a lot of the time. I don’t know what it was to be honest but I just thought he was the odd one out. It was just something I noticed.
The Romance. I’ll get into this more in the spoiler talk but I don’t really like how it was handled. One character, I thought it was fine. It was the love triangle with Bill, Beverly and Ben that I didn’t quite like. It’s not in your face or handled super poorly the way it normally can be handled in horror films but I thought the payout was lame no matter how it ended in the book. I didn’t believe in the end pairing because I didn’t think there was enough time for them to really have those romantic moments. That is all.
CGI Stuff and Horror. Obviously, this movie is a horror film and don’t get me wrong, I am not a horror fan, there are just some movies that catch my attention that happen to be horror lol. But, a lot of the time the build up for a reveal is handled really well but when things actually happen it turns out funny instead of scary. For example, I’m sure you remember the trailer with the old lady with Beverly in the house. So, that entire scene is unsettling and the old lady does weird stuff in the background and you can see her doing it, but when she actually is revealed, she looks ridiculous that I laughed. That happens a few times. My friend had her face covered with one eye visible for most of the movie and I know she was scared but I’m sorry, I cracked up quite a bit lol. Also, towards the end when we see Pennywise’s true form, it’s a mixture between the clown and his true form and if you have a fear of both clowns and what his true form is, then I can see it being too much and while I don’t like clowns, Pennywise isn’t that scary to me anymore and his final form was also kind of ridiculous. I laughed when they first showed it. I say all that to say, it may be scary to some but funny to others and while I was a little unsettled, I laughed at a lot of the designs. Unlike Judith (the painted lady) and the headless boy from the first film who were genuinely scary, I didn’t quite get that here. Not to mention, it’s also really a little weird when we get flashbacks with the kids and they are de-aged, some more than others, I think I noticed this particularly with Finn Wolfhard, probably because I’m so aware of him. I mean, look at him in the first one and then look at him now and it’s pretty obvious lol.
Loses the Simplicity. I thought a lot about this afterwards, but I think because this movie has to wrap everything up and so much is happening, it suffers a little for being complicated and having a ton of exposition at times. I know Mike is trying to impress upon the others the seriousness of the situation but a lot of times, it’s him talking and shouting at them and then everyone shouting at each other trying to say how they feel about everything. Then you have the entire third act of the film where they go into the sewers and it’s just a scary and fun joyride from there but they have to do so many things that it’s like “get to the point!” don’t get me wrong, I understood everything, I enjoyed the process but I’m also aware that what made the first movie so good, is that it’s complicated but pleasantly simple and it felt more contained whereas this one, is bigger and you can tell. It just feels like so much is going on and being thrown at you at once that it can become an overload of just stuff.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoy this movie. I think the first one is much better but this movie does a lot of great things. The cast is masterful which is great because the kid actors were the main reason why I wanted to see the first one in the first place. I thought all the adults managed to play the characters well where I can see the kids in them and not be completely upset at how they’re nothing alike. I still hoped for Amy Adams for Beverly but after seeing it, Chastain was fine. I’m happy at the development that Mike and even Richie received compared to the first film and I thought that James McAvoy and Bill Hader were standouts. They all have great chemistry together, especially when it counts. There are three really strong sequences that were acted so well that I just can’t even. This movie is really funny as well. There are a lot of laughs, some that are uncomfortable and some that are genuinely funny. The flashbacks scenes were some of my favorites because we got to see more with the kids and get a bit more development and time with them, which was great and it was handled so well in the film that it didn’t take me out the way flashbacks usually can. There is also some horror in here for the horror fans. I’m not one of those but I was able to handle it for the most part. Now, speaking of horror, I think the buildups to the scary moments were better than some of the actual scary reveals because  sometimes they just looked ridiculous that it made me laugh. I was more unsettled at the little stuff that might have happened in the background or that led up to the reveals. I do think the chemistry was off in some places, but mostly when it came to Jay Ryan. I do not believe the pairing at the end of the movie. I’m not upset about it but I wish the film did better in making me believe it was even an actual option, not just one-sided. Lastly, this film has a lot of stuff to get through and handle and you can tell that there is a lot more going on and it has a hard time, sometimes, making it through without it feeling like a lot. But in the end, IT Chapter Two is a great follow up to a wonderful first film and I definitely recommend it.
Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars.
Have you seen IT: Chapter Two? Who is your favorite Loser? What did you think about this film? Let me know in the comments below!
There will be a spoiler talk for this film once I see the movie a second time :D.
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