IT, Chapter 2

IT is my favorite book of all time. I read it every summer between the ages of 15 and 25 and took away something new each time. It’s not a book for a lightweight; you have to commit to IT (pun intended), which I did for three blistering days and nights in the summer of 1988.  I appreciated the effort the TV series made in the early 90s, but I wasn’t thrilled by it, with the exception of His Pimpness Tim Curry as Pennywise. So when I learned that TPTB were tackling IT for a new generation, I was skeptical but willing to give it a shot.

Chapter One fucked up right off the bat by stripping Mike (the only black character) of his awesome backstory and giving it to Ben. This made Mike pretty much useless for most of the movie and I’m still salty about it. The movie was laden with jump scares—which don’t scare me—and I was pretty much meh. Bill Skarsgard did all right as Pennywise. It was all right.

Fast-forward two years. Chapter Two clocked in at three (THREE!) hours and I felt every one of them. Chapter Two fucked up right off the bat by making Mike a desperate lunatic, which he isn’t at all in the book. The whole movie was disjointed. I understand that they cannot perfectly recreate the events of 1,138 pages, but they could have put forth a better effort than this, especially with the movie being so damn long.

It’s like the writers couldn’t agree on what should happen, so all of their ideas made it into the film. It’s a fucking mess. Plot threads are introduced and then never go anywhere. They spend time on flashbacks that would have been better served being inserted into Chapter One. Significant characters that have a specific purpose aren’t given the respect they deserve. There was one noticeable character change from the book that I was curious to see play out and it never did. The writers must have never heard of Chekhov’s Gun, because the script is a dumpster fire of unrealized potential.

One of the legit main criticisms of the 90s TV movie is the ending. As I said before, aspects of King’s mammoth story do not translate well to the screen, and the ending of IT is one of them. This should lend itself to a myriad of creative possibilities—at least I think so—but the choice they made for this movie is laughable and weak. I found myself calling bullshit and checking my watch every few minutes.

I don’t want to spoil the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it, so I’ll end with this: If you read the book, prepare to be disappointed. If you haven’t read the book, you’ll probably be like, “What in the hell is going on?” Either way, you’ll want your money back. Grade: F.