Had my first viewing a couple days ago of this. It had some shaky parts, but overall, i think it ended up a solid movie. I lean towards the first one being a bit better, but I felt by the end of the movie that once again, they did a decent job navigating the pitfalls of adapting this.
The Adrian Mellon scene at the start - a bit rushed, and it doesn't really grab the details of what that scene established in the book, mainly that Derry has a deep down case of the crazies. But we get some nice character moments with Adrian and Don, quick as they are, before we proceed to what many in this day probably find to be a bit of a graphic scene. An understandable perspective, hatred in your face like that is uncomfortable. For people who have been on the receiving end of such hatred, even more so. It is something that still exists and is a problem unfortunately, albeit better than it used to be. It demos the dark underbelly of Derry, just in a little more of a shallow way than the book (but isn't that always the problem from the book to the screen?)
The intro of the adult Losers is very rapid fire. Peppered with some amusing moments and giving us a little glimpse into the characters lives, it's almost too rapid fire. It doesn't do the best job establishing just how completely they've forgotten their past lives, although there are a few references sprinkled in. We get very brief glimpses of Audra and Tom, never to be seen again. We get a fairly short but effective demo of what a piece of crap Tom is. Audra however, is given pretty short shrift. I understand the need to nerf the plotline of these two chasing their spouses to Derry in a movie that has so much to do, but it felt like Audra was just there, and she wasn't even convincing as a loving spouse. She did get to start the pretty fun running joke of how Bill is incapable of writing a good ending, something many have said of Stephen King, which is a clear call out to that running criticism. Henry shows up as an adult as well, again, feeling a little tacked on, even more so than in the first movie, which already suffered from time constraints not being able to demonstrate just how deep his crazy was and how much It was using him.
The Jade Orient scene, started out good, the camaraderie was there. It starts to get a little too manic for me when it comes time for Mike to inform the others what has been happening. Everyone talking over each other, not letting Mike actually talk, was a bit annoying. The fortune cookie messages were a nice touch however, and the reactions to the cookie monsters (ba dum dum) were well done. Then we get another dose of what the mini series suffered from that was one of my main annoyances with it. The adults all start talking about cutting and running, and not following through on their promise. I'm not sure why the need for anyone adapting this to make the adults act like they have no intentions of staying or following through on their promise to kill the child murdering monster. There was no such wavering in the book, and I don't think it plays particularly well. Having a moment of such thoughts, sure, and having one scene of convincing, but Richie is once again one foot out the door for half the movie, and others hop on and off the "let's get the **** out of dodge" train at various points.
We get the movies version of the Ritual of Chud, understandably toned down a bit from the book, and then we get the new version of the Walking Tours section. The tokens thing was a little meh, but again, trying to adapt the ritual to the big screen has its problems so i was mostly ok with it. We get some nice flashbacks along the way, and the underground clubhouse appears. It feels a little tacked on, and I wish they'd at least had one scene with it in the first one, but it was nice to see. We also get a serviceable Ms. Kersh scene, and we get one of the more unexpected things to actually make the leap from book to screen, the giant murderous Paul Bunyan statue. Here we start getting the heavy hint that Richie is gay and closeted, which while not true to the source material as such, isn't a bad change for me. The scene with Bill encountering the skateboard kid and his subsequent attempt to save him from Pennywise was fairly well done. Despite Henry's feeling of being tacked on, his quest to kill the Losers with the assistance of zombie Patrick wasn't too bad, we get some fun sequences from that, although Henry is pretty quickly put on the chopping block. Richie's little side trip down memory lane in regards to Stan's bar mitzvah speech while he was fleeing Derry was a nice way to bring him back in.
Bill was again almost drawn away from the rest of the group, this time the catalyst being the kid he tried to save instead of his kidnapped wife, but the group catches him just before he enters the Neibolt house and we head into the final act. Mike is with them this time, unlike the book and miniseries, in part because of the movies version of the Ritual of Chud, so that's an interesting change, although they feel like they didn't give him quite enough to do despite that. The sequence with the Stan head/spider thing was pretty cool, we get the movie's version of the mini door to It's lair, there's a lot going on really, details i could go on about for awhile, and maybe we can dive into all that in subsequent posts. Bill addresses his guilt over his brothers death, Bev and Ben make a connection, Eddie overcomes his fear, showcased a couple times earlier with him freezing up when someone needed help. He hurts It, and while taking a mental victory lap we get the inevitable mortal injury for him. The end is a little shaky, with the Losers kind of shouting It down and expressing their belief that It's small/not scary becoming It's reality, fading It into a shell of Itself, and they snatch It's heart out and crush it together. Then they make their escape while It's lair crashes down around.
The series of scenes at the end were pretty emotional, coping with Eddie's death. The final series of scenes catching us up with the Losers post Derry. The fact they didn't forget each other was nice for me. One of the more depressing things about the novel's end is how much they all went through, some even sacrificing their lives, only to forget each other's very existence and the deep bond they shared. The letters from Stan were an interesting touch.
The adult cast is just as talented as the kids from part one. Great job by all of them. Bill Skarsgard is again in great form, the scene with the little girl and the end of the Kersh scene in particular. I felt a little shaky about things at the beginning but by the end of the movie i was placated. I'm not sure how i felt about other little details like Bev's precognition because of being in the deadlights (speaking of things feeling tacked on, i don't recall that word being used at all in the first movie, but they talk about it in this one like they all know exactly what it is and what it means). The rushing at the beginning and the statement the cycle is almost over feels a little disconcerting too, as the timeline of events didn't feel very established. Sticking an arbitrary deadline on is an understandable movie trope to move things along, so i can forgive that somewhat at least.
Sorry for the essay, TLDR great movie, with some shaky parts/tropes but i enjoyed it for the most part.
Also: waves Hello all, I've been away for a bit, nice to be back, trying to catch up on everything, missed a lot of you, hope everyone has been well.