Before I dive into the meat and potatoes of this review, let me first warn you that this review includes spoilers. BUT, I’ll warn you before I start disclosing secrets. I need to get some rants off of my chest, and the only way to do that is by spilling the beans.
This is also a Maverick review, so I’m going to dive into some screenwriting crap here, so hold on tight, this will be an interesting one.
ENTERTAINMENT FACTOR
It: Chapter Two is an entertaining movie. There are some critics who will say it drags a bit, and they are right, but it’s not that bad. From the beginning, the movie pretty much chugs along. The movie is close to 3 hours long, 2 hours 50 minutes to be exact, that’s about a 170-page script. Did it need to be that long? Probably not.
There were times where “It” was creepy and funny. Scary, well not so much. It didn’t really make me jump out of my seat. And if I recall correctly, I didn’t hear any screams in the theatre.
But it didn’t put me to sleep, and in the end, that’s what counts.
GRADE: A
ACTORS KILLED IT
All the actors did a great job. My only complaint is that I was having a hard time deciphering which adult actor represented the child actor, other than the black dude and girl. But who would have thought that the fat kid would grow up to be a casanova and that the dorky kid with glasses wouldn’t get Lasik?
GRADE: A
RECOMMENDATION
Well, if you saw It: Chapter One, you need to see this movie. It’s not as good as Chapter One, but you’ll still have a good time. Even though it’s not scary, it’s not a movie that you should bring your kids to see. This is a daddy and mommy only date movie, not one for the entire family.
Is it worth a full movie price ticket? I would say yes. Now, I definitely have some major problems with this movie and I’m about to dive into that (with spoilers), but overall, because the movie was entertaining for close to 3 hours, you get your bang for the buck.
It is though – stupid.
SPOILER ALERT! This is where you should turn back because from here on out, I will freely give spoilers.
ENNEAGRAM CHARACTER BREAKDOWN
PENNYWISE: Unhealthy Type Five “Intellectual”
It was rather difficult to decipher what personality type Pennywise was on the Enneagram. All personalities can be violent, paranoid, agenda-driven, and flat-out crazy. And all personality types can kill, they just have different motivations. When people are introduced to the Enneagram, many immediately jump to the conclusion that Type Eight “Challengers” are usually your murderers and serial killers. Well, that’s not always the case. While Eights regularly break rules and laws and can be confrontational, they are not more likely than others to be murderous.
When we try to determine personality types, we should look past behavior cues and straight to their soul. In the case of Pennywise, he tended to be a natural introvert, living in the shadows, away from adults, choosing to live in abandoned sewers. He terrorized the town, but not openly. In fact, he operated with such elusiveness, many of the residents of the town didn’t realize that he was killing their kids.
If I were to write Pennywise, I would probably use the skeleton of an Unhealthy Type Five as my foundation. Fives can get lost in their genius mind, validating their own paranoias, and then sometimes conspiring to destroy what they irrationally fear. And Fives are your natural introverts, fearing crowds and direct interaction with society.
AS FOR THE OTHER CHARACTERS…
They weren’t really well developed to a point where I could assign a personality type to them. I could probably say that Beverly may be a Type 6 who dealt with abandonment issues, and Richie was a Type One who hid behind his criticism of almost everything under the sun. But they all had their childhood issues that they carried on into life, and well – that’s about it.
To be quite honest, I thought because the characters were not comparable to real personalities, making it pretty hard for the audience to relate with, and that’s why the movie dragged in certain areas.
BUT THEN, “IT” GOT STUPID
While It: Chapter Two was an entertaining movie, and in no ways boring – it was stupid. I would say, stupid on the level of “Us.”
As we find out in the movie, Pennywise is an alien from beyond our galaxy, who has traveled to the Americas, to hide out in our sewers and to kill children. Not to overtake our government, not to rid our the planet of its resources, but to kill kids – and to live in a sewer drains. Think about how stupid that sounds. You travel millions of lightyears to live in a sewer.
If that doesn’t sound stupid enough, the way the “Loser’s Club” kills Pennywise was idiotic. They bullied him to death – with name-calling. They literally called the gigantic spider names – because words are more powerful than guns? I’m sure that works on real-life venomous spiders.
And let’s not forget, that the “Loser’s Club” decides to fight Pennywise once again as adults, and NOT ONE OF THEM them decides to bring a gun. You’re going to fight a giant spider and you’re not going to bring a gun – I mean, come on. If I wanted to fight a grizzly bear I’d bring a bazooka.
Again, this is just as bad as the movie “Us” where underground clones were able to overtake the United States – with scissors. And no one in Los Angeles happened to have a gun.
Mix in the fact that ultimately, Pennywise could have easily killed the Loser club at any time, but didn’t. And none of the characters in their adult life acquired any useful skills to defeat “It.” Do I have to mention the 1 hour worth of side-missions that ultimately was of no use at all to the story? All of the tokens the Loser Club had to acquire to defeat Pennywise, were useless. Useless side-missions, that sounds as bad as The Last Jedi.
For this, It recieves my highest grade for stupidity.
STUPIDITY GRADE: A+
Steve Young
