Movie IT Chapter 2.

Finally saw IT.

Wow- what an opening scene- was watching from in between my hands/fingers covering my eyes. The rest of it, I really enjoyed it- the flashbacks intertwined throughout worked well. Some of the "scares" mid way were kinda s**t-disappointing but i will overlook those. The scene where Beverly goes back to her old house is creepy af. And I really liked the ending. Was in the exact right frame of mind/mood to see it.

7.5/10
 
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seen it recently. first hour (i think? time loses all meaning watching this) i thought was pretty good. the rest dragged on and was not particularly interesting. the longer the running the worse it got.

certain parts deviating from the book weakened it substantially

- stan's letter at the end was pathetic and unnecessary
- each needing to find their own 'artifact' for some hokey horror-movie-cliché re-imagining of chüd
- it's true form was a spider-clown half and half?
- insulting it to death.. come on. i'm not saying the book would have been easy to portray in film but that sucked hairy leper balls
- bowers not being able to put hanlon in hospital rendered his character more or less useless
- don't need bill's bike anymore and his wife doesn't need to ride on it. strictly there as a nod to the book
- richie's suggested homosexuality comes as a piecemeal offering toward correcting the bashing at the start of the movie. there's no other reason for it to exist. mike staying out of hospital hints at the writers keeping one eye on the political climate while writing their movie.

- they could have reworked the book to have the losers coming into derry seperately and to go through their individual vignettes before banding together. this would create more linear character development, mirror their coming together somewhat as kids and build on the sense of growing older and human failings that the movie needs the adults to exhibit. kids are inherently vulnerable but it's harder to craft that when the adults have gone on to become successful, have forgotten how loser-y they were, and make jokes every 5 seconds.
the adults being forgetful was a story-writing asset they could have made better use of, instead of explaining it away as #derrythings. they needed to spend more time around the dinner table discussing some sort of misery that was in their lives as adults.
 
seen it recently. first hour (i think? time loses all meaning watching this) i thought was pretty good. the rest dragged on and was not particularly interesting. the longer the running the worse it got.

certain parts deviating from the book weakened it substantially

- stan's letter at the end was pathetic and unnecessary
- each needing to find their own 'artifact' for some hokey horror-movie-cliché re-imagining of chüd
- it's true form was a spider-clown half and half?
- insulting it to death.. come on. i'm not saying the book would have been easy to portray in film but that sucked hairy leper balls
- bowers not being able to put hanlon in hospital rendered his character more or less useless
- don't need bill's bike anymore and his wife doesn't need to ride on it. strictly there as a nod to the book
- richie's suggested homosexuality comes as a piecemeal offering toward correcting the bashing at the start of the movie. there's no other reason for it to exist. mike staying out of hospital hints at the writers keeping one eye on the political climate while writing their movie.

- they could have reworked the book to have the losers coming into derry seperately and to go through their individual vignettes before banding together. this would create more linear character development, mirror their coming together somewhat as kids and build on the sense of growing older and human failings that the movie needs the adults to exhibit. kids are inherently vulnerable but it's harder to craft that when the adults have gone on to become successful, have forgotten how loser-y they were, and make jokes every 5 seconds.
the adults being forgetful was a story-writing asset they could have made better use of, instead of explaining it away as #derrythings. they needed to spend more time around the dinner table discussing some sort of misery that was in their lives as adults.

I actually agree with your entire post pretty much.

Still loved it tho
 
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I actually agree with your entire post pretty much.

Still loved it tho


i can dig that. there's an experiential component to movies. as a story i thought it was weak, but i enjoyed sitting there eating my popcorn and audibly groaning. it goes even further nowadays i think - reading reviews that share my intense dislikes is for me, somewhat life-affirming.
 
Did the double yesterday. Much more comfortable than a cinema. First one was better but still enjoyed 2. Ending was still lame but better done than the old one. Don't understand the lame/bad cgi comments. Thought the cg was fine. Agree with the comments about Bowers being more or less pointless. Also agree with the commentary on the overuse of jump scares. The creepy, sinister build like Bev's apartment are far more long lasting in your memory I think.

Anyway as far as King adaptations go this is right up there with the best.
 

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Did the double yesterday. Much more comfortable than a cinema. First one was better but still enjoyed 2. Ending was still lame but better done than the old one. Don't understand the lame/bad cgi comments. Thought the cg was fine. Agree with the comments about Bowers being more or less pointless. Also agree with the commentary on the overuse of jump scares. The creepy, sinister build like Bev's apartment are far more long lasting in your memory I think.

Anyway as far as King adaptations go this is right up there with the best.
this sums up my thoughts beautifully. Teasing him to death was s**t. They actually say we can call him names to make him small in front of him, then do it and it works? Bowers was a waste of space, which in a movie that’s an hour too long, is unacceptable. Bevs apartment the best scene.

One thing I’ll add that nobody else has mentioned, the choice for adult Ben was fantastic. I thought the resemblance from a fat kid to a very good looking man was amazing. They were all pretty good I thought but this one in particular. Also liked the stephen king cameo and the fact bills an author with great stories but s**t endings, which I’ve heard said about king more than once.

For me, not close to chapter 1, but still enjoyable enough. Would be much better at 2 hours though.
 
As good as The Shining, Stand By Me, 1408 or The Mist?
If I listed every King adaptation in order from best to worst it would be at the upper end.

But then again I thought Desperation was pretty good so what would I know.
 
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As good as The Shining, Stand By Me, 1408 or The Mist?
Best for me would be The Stand, Stand by Me, Shawshank Redemption and IT (both this and 80’s version). Either short stories or given multiple movies or a mini-series. Single full length book to one movie get butchered too much, leaving the characters as cardboard cutouts of their book versions. The clear worst adaptation was The Dark Tower.
 
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Best for me would be The Stand, Stand by Me, Shawshank Redemption and IT (both this and 80’s version). Either short stories or given multiple movies or a mini-series. Single full length book to one movie get butchered too much, leaving the characters as cardboard cutouts of their book versions. The clear worst adaptation was The Dark Tower.
Horrendous movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Running Man is my least favourite adaption. Still a great movie but it's so different it amazes me they bothered using the name Running Man name at all.
 

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The Green Mile, Misery and The Shining for me. I really liked Dolores Claiborne too.
 

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Best for me would be The Stand, Stand by Me, Shawshank Redemption and IT (both this and 80’s version). Either short stories or given multiple movies or a mini-series. Single full length book to one movie get butchered too much, leaving the characters as cardboard cutouts of their book versions. The clear worst adaptation was The Dark Tower.
The tv mini series? That was a pitiful adaptation. Peaked in the first minute because of an awesome opening song, but butchered the story and characters imo. Looking forward to the new one, not sure where it was at before COVID. Listening to the audiobook at work in preparation as I couldn’t commit to a re-read.
 

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Watched Chapter 1 the other day. When Pennywise did the teeth thing was scary. Also eating that kid thing was ****ed
 
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The tv mini series? That was a pitiful adaptation. Peaked in the first minute because of an awesome opening song, but butchered the story and characters imo. Looking forward to the new one, not sure where it was at before COVID. Listening to the audiobook at work in preparation as I couldn’t commit to a re-read.
Yeah, the mini-series. I thought it was a reasonable adaptation, with the main oversight it largely missed Harold realising at the end (too late) he’d picked the wrong side.
 
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Horrendous movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Running Man is my least favourite adaption. Still a great movie but it's so different it amazes me they bothered using the name Running Man name at all.
If I hadn’t read the books (Dark Tower) it’d be an ok movie. Adaptations can be a good adaptation and a good or poor movie or a poor adaptation and a good or poor movie. The Shining I think was a poor adaptation, but a good movie.

How anyone thought a 7 book series could be done in one 2 hour movie is beyond me. I’d love a full Dark Tower series.

On IT2, it’s main flaw was it drifted too much from psychological horror to slasher violence IMO.
 
Best for me would be The Stand, Stand by Me, Shawshank Redemption and IT (both this and 80’s version). Either short stories or given multiple movies or a mini-series. Single full length book to one movie get butchered too much, leaving the characters as cardboard cutouts of their book versions. The clear worst adaptation was The Dark Tower.
I would say Cell was an even worse adaptation than Dark Tower. The book actually was entertaining so what they did with the movie was just terrible.

IT was great. Preferred the first one. I know some stuff got edited out too so would be keen for a directors cut one day.
 
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