It: Chapter Two

I am a huge fan of Stephen King's best-selling novel It!  I thought it was a brilliant idea to divide the story into two movies, with the first one focusing on the events in 1989 and the second one focusing on the present, but I have to admit that as soon as I walked out of It I started looking forward to the conclusion (and immediately started casting all of the adult roles in my head).  After anticipating It: Chapter Two for so long I finally got to see it last night at a Thursday preview.  In 1989, Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Martell), Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis), Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor), Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard), Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs), Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Grazer), and Stanley Uris (Wyatt Oleff) are able to defeat the evil presence that appears in Derry every 27 years but they do not kill it.  They make a blood pact to return to Derry if it reappears again.  In the present, Mike (Isaiah Mustafa), the only member of the Loser's Club who remained in Derry, calls Bill (James McAvoy), Beverly (Jessica Chastain), Ben (Jay Ryan), Richie (Bill Hader), Eddie (James Ransone), and Stan (Andy Bean) when there are some unexplained deaths.  All but Stan return even though they have forgotten much of what happened.  They all must eventually confront their pasts in order to retrieve artifacts to use in an ancient ritual which they conduct in the sewers of Derry.  Will this ritual be enough to kill the evil presence that appears in the guise of Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgard)?  I loved the performances of the young actors in the first movie and I thought the filmmakers did a brilliant job of casting the adult roles (I thought Teach Grant, the adult version of Henry Bowers, was also spot-on).  The actors do a great job of recreating all of the idiosyncrasies of the younger characters, particularly Ransone as Eddie.  The adults have just as much camaraderie as the kids and infuse a lot of comedic elements to balance out the horror (it was fun seeing this with a rowdy crowd who laughed out loud multiple times).  There are some really scary moments but I think the first movie is a bit more unsettling because Pennywise is fighting younger and more vulnerable characters.  I didn't feel as much dread in the final confrontation.  I also think this movie is a lot longer than it needs to be because it kept returning unnecessarily to the events of the past and my mind sometimes wandered.  Still, I think the outstanding performances by the ensemble cast make this a satisfying conclusion to the saga and I recommend it to fans of the first movie.

Note:  Many of my students are reading the novel and they made me promise not to reveal any spoiler alerts in class today!