Well before I get into that, I have to do something I haven't had to do on one of these yet; a Trigger Warning. This film opens with something from the book that wasn't in the previous TV version, and a lot of people were wondering if it would be done here; a truly disturbing homophobic assault and murder, by a bunch of thugs in Derry. It's ugly and disturbing in a way nothing else in the film is, and having it right at the start I know has thrown quite a few viewers. This is also one of the film's first big miscalculations, in that it's part of the whole thread that Pennywise's mere presence is a corruption on Derry, but the thing is that's the only major time that happens in the present day (well, 2016) scenes. It ends up not actually counting for much in story, as although it is the thing that brings the Loser's club back to Derry, it's so different to Pennywise's usual M.O. that it stands out. We never see those thugs again, there's no catharsis of seeing them get a comeuppance like the bullies in the first film, which they could have if the filmmakers had kept one big bit of the novel's climax, so that opening leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. I get the point they were trying to make, and it does reflect a new character beat in this version, but I really don't think it works, and it's something that you would need to brace yourself before seeing.
The other main reason that stands out in this film is that there's a big change in tone between this film and Chapter One; namely that this sequel has moments that are quite frankly goofy as all shit! There seems to have been an attempt to up the humour in between scares, but it's done to an absurd degree, and quite a few of them actively undercut the scares. There's one set piece with two characters fleeing Pennywise in the climax, the set of which is very silly, but isn't helped by the fact it's very similar to a moment SHAZAM! did earlier this year, and it's really not the sort of thing that you intercut with other characters in real torment. Also in that moment, there's a scene that Jessica Chastain says is the goriest she's ever done, a truly disturbing set piece... which the film then botches by having the most blatant and out of place reference to another Stephen King work (well, sort of...) happen needlessly, popping the tension like one of Pennywise's balloons. Oh yeah, and the various forms Pennywise take this time, the giant ones so that he can tower over the adults like he did the kids, also aren't scary, they just look silly (one in particular, the one in the park, I did nearly burst out laughing at). It was always a problem versions of this story has; what seems like an appropriate threat for kid characters (i.e. an evil clown) doesn't really work when put against adult characters.
It's worth mentioning that one of the reasons that this sequel has been awaited with such interest is because that this part of the original book is where the story gets really weird, and it's not one of King's most coherent stories to begin with. There's a running joke in here about the adult Bill's books having not very good endings, which basically sums up a lot of issues King has, that in very few of his novels does he stick the landing. (Stephen King has a cameo in this one, I hope he wasn't on set for one of the bits where they're talking about the endings) My word, It the novel is no exception to that, in that it has stuff like the characters flashing back to a group orgy they had as kids, a key bit to defeating Pennywise being biting his tongue, and Bill getting to meet a space turtle who's basically God. I'll let all of that sink in for a moment. Well, the thing about this running joke in the film is that it would be funnier if the ending they had, which does away with a lot of that nonsense, was much better that it actually is. It relies on some shakey logic, characters having to relearn a key thing about Pennywise that helped their initial victory, and Native American folklore stuff, which isn't delivered in as cringeworthy a manner as it is in the book, but does come across as rather condescending. In fact, that plot point is extra cringey in that a key idea is that they are going to "do the ritual right this time", suggesting that the characters think they can do this Native American magic better than the actual Native Americans who came up with it. Oh dear, I don't think they thought that thread through very well.
Sorry to say, but after the promise of the first one, this is kind of a washout. Mind, that's been true of both the previous versions of the story, the novel and the TV miniseries both falter with the adult sections too. The cast in here is great, and they are all giving it their best, but they don't get that much good stuff to do, to the point that some of their actions seem... well, impotent. This isn't helped out by there being new scenes with the kid characters feeling so much more alive, and not just in the scare moments either. It really does feel like the film is spinning its wheels until the climax, with one potentially interesting subplot from the book ending up a damp squib. And I'm sorry, but apart from that trigger warning bit I mentioned earlier (oh, and a couple of scenes of domestic abuse against the one female lead in this story... smooth), there isn't anything really scary. You have a handful of interesting new visuals, most of which were given away in the trailers, and that's about it. Lucky that Chapter One can stand on its own so well, as I don't see this being revisited nearly so often. Actually, on that point, Chapter One was in development hell for ages, with drafts by the Duffer Brothers (who took some of their ideas with them to make Stranger Things) and Cary Fukunaga before the finished script. I'm guessing that for this film, not having previous scripts to base ideas on hasn't helped it at all. Yeah, not worth it, sorry guys.
Three last things; firstly, in the 1989 bits there are some arcade machines present, including a Mortal Kombat machine. The fact that I was spending time during the film irritated by that being an anachronism tells you how much the plot was grabbing me. Secondly, I wonder how many people will recognise the oddest cameo in a Stephen King movie ever (film buffs will know it when they see it). Finally, the evening at the cinema wasn't a complete wash-out; got to see that Birds of Prey teaser, I'm actually looking forward to that film. Well, it has a low bar to clear in being better than Suicide Squad, although having a teaser making fun of It before the film starts, not the best way to set the tone...
1 comment:
I think you've hit on something with your point about how kids being menaced by a creepy clown is scary, but adults being menaced by a creepy clown seems incongruous.
Whilst you're right that disentangling the adult and child plotlines was a big help to Chapter One, I think it ended up setting Chapter Two up for a fall. Having Pennywise regularly menacing the kids keeps reminding us that yes, the clown is scary, which helps us stay afraid of the clown when it shows up to confront the adults.
I'm not sure what they could have done in this case to compensate for that. Possibly they could have made It a more diffuse, nebulous threat this time. After all, there seems to be a strand in the novel that suggests that It works through various atrocities motivated by bigotry and hatred in the history of Derry. There's the homophobic attack you mentioned, and I vaguely recall the book having an account of a fire which killed a bunch of people in a predominantly-black area of the town in past decades which I think we're meant to read between the lines as having been arson.
Perhaps a more grownup version of the story would acknowledge that when we're adults the stuff we're afraid of tends to be much more difficult to pin down in a distinctive physical form than the stuff we're afraid of when we're kids, and work from that. But then it'd be a very different story from the one King ended up writing (albeit perhaps a bit closer to what he was intending with the "It inspires bigotry in the general population" angle before the cocaine made him forget where he was going with it).
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