But let’s back up for a moment.įor starters, it feels glaringly unfair that Mike is the only Loser who stayed in the town of Derry. Sure, as you learn, he’s a villain because of his own tunnel-vision idea that to defeat Pennywise, the Losers must reunite-and he’ll do whatever it takes, even lie to his childhood friends, to make that happen. Stanley dies in the first 15 minutes of the movie, and Mike is revealed to be a “villain” around the 70% mark. But their characters are thrown in, rather than thoughtfully groomed. The aforementioned Mike and Stanley Uris (Andy Bean) present the most visible examples of cultural diversity, the former being Black and the latter, Jewish. Assessment: 20% of key cast and crew members were POC. Rather than do the hard work of showing how people deal with pain and trauma, Muschietti’s It films prefer to sensationalize violence-with Beverly as the lightning rod. She could have had so much power, I should say, but she falls back into the damsel in distress trope all over again. Not only is it sad because Jessica Chastain is a GODDESS and we don’t deserve her, but Beverly has so much power. Instead, the film only cares enough about Beverly for her to be saved, to be a romantic interest, or to be a straightforward solution for anything supernatural. We never see how she’s her own person, with an entire life outside of her victimization. Chapter Two also seems to forget how Beverly formed the glue of the group and had become their rallying cry during the last fight with Pennywise. Yet Chapter Two barely mentions the power. Let’s not forget who Beverly is: She can see the future, a byproduct of being exposed to the DeadLights-a glowing, supernatural effect emitted by Pennywise during Beverly’s capture in the previous It film. Her many and varied strengths feel brushed aside in favor of this tropeish role for women in film-as something for men to conquer. Once again, her primary plot involves a love triangle between Loser Club leader Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy) and Ben. She escapes to her hometown of Derry when fellow Loser Club member Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) calls, but is forced to confront memories of her father, her original tormentor. Beverly Marsh, now grown, starts out being abused again but this time by her husband. I’m disappointed to report that Chapter Two continues that trend. Simply put, she felt like a token nod towards gender diversity. She never found strength independent of the boys around her, and her arc felt half-finished, seemingly at a loss beyond establishing her as a victim of sexual abuse or an object for the other members of the Losers Club to fawn over. The first chapter of It mishandled her, for all the reasons detailed in our previous review. With hair like winter fire and January embers, how I feel for thee. Assessment: 20% of key cast and crew members were women. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to make the film feel like anything more than an awkward extension of Muschietti’s stronger showing in 2017. Some shots, like when Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) and Ben Hanscom (Jay Ryan) reach for each other while trapped in their own shared nightmare, are simply beautiful to watch. Chapter Two succeeds most through its cinematography. Meanwhile, the small handful of jump scares fail to elicit more than a shrug, and tonal changes between horror and comedy add up to a disjointed experience. Now multiply that by several characters searching for various totems, and you can imagine how boring and repetitive this quickly becomes while adding nothing to the movie. The film charts a formulaic hero's journey, with space fillers such as the side plot where each member of “The Losers Club”, the moniker the main characters had given themselves as kids, must find an item that represents themself. The pacing feels dragged out at 2 hours and 50 minutes long, and in case you’re wondering-it doesn’t need to be that long. I’d gone into it without real expectations, and fell in love with the way Muschietti rendered the depths of human horror, as told through Bill Skarsgård’s portrayal of Pennywise.īut It: Chapter Two doesn’t hit the mark the way its predecessor did. Mama (2013) both terrified and resonated with me, and It (2017) was no different. Here’s the thing about Andy Muschietti: I love his movies. Reviewed by Kosoko □□□□□ -SPOILERS AHEAD. Writer: Gary Dauberman □□□□ based on the novel by Stephen King □□□□
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