It: Chapter Two Review – Mark’s Dark Corner
I started reading Stephen King when I was around 8 or 9. My Christmas gifts one year consisted of Firestarter and The Eyes of the Dragon and from there I was sucked into the world that King created. I’ve spent hours upon hours poring through his novels, short stories, etc. And I still can’t get enough. Everything from the epic journey that is the Dark Tower series (4,250 pages) to Carrie (a book I read in two days) I bought in to his voice, the character depth, the horror, and dark humor that the Maine native created and has been giving the world chills for years.
In all those dark adventures, and many many words of reading, there’s one book that has always stood out amongst them for me.
It.
That of the scary clown variety, and 1100 pages of it! The story gets you so involved with every character that putting the book down, after days and days of reading it, it physically hurts. King is an expert at making you fall in love with the good guys, and knowing every dark disgusting depth of the bad guys, said nasty clown not excluded.
Now you’re asking yourself - Wasn’t this supposed to be a review about the movie?
Why, yes! When the end of It: Chapter Two was approaching, as I sat in the theaters, watching the words and pages come to life, I was getting that same feeling. The feeling of having to leave behind the characters I grew to love, the story I didn’t want to see end. The feeling of putting down an 1100-page book. Somehow, they did it with a movie for me.
I have never felt that way with a movie before. And maybe it was because of my love of the book, but the writing, directing, etc. of the movie itself tapped into that magical realm that I thought only Stephen King could really produce with such a story. This movie, as well as the first chapter, released in 2107, was as parallel to the book as I could possibly dream. Was it different in some ways? Of course. The book was freaking 1100 pages long. Not sure there was any closer to the original you could have come.
What I’m really saying with all this, is that the movie was excellent. The blood and gore, creepiness, and surmounting tension was done so well that I didn’t want it to end. The creators of It: Chapter Two hit a home run with this one. There was so much in the movie that tugged on my heartstrings as an avid reader/fanatic of the book. The Chinese Restaurant scene, the banter between the characters as long-ago lost friends, the flashbacks to where the characters were kids, the battles with the creature that has been killing people and haunting Derry for ages. And so much more rang true to the story King put forth so long ago. For me there was sentimental value, in that I reminisced on my love of the book.
Was it flawless? Nah…Although I just went on about love of the characters, and the depth created with them, I felt Henry Bowers was a bit thin in Chapter Two. In Chapter 1, Bowers was everywhere. Getting in Mike’s face, haunting Ben and the Loser’s Club at every turn he could. Another point…At times some of the scenes felt a little rushed with the lines and the action, but once again, we’re talking about cramming 1100 pages of book into an overall total of about 5 hours.
My final dark thoughts: I loved this movie, and regardless of its run time of nearly 3 hours, I know that it will be a movie I play again and again once I own it. It was dark, humorous at times, gave me chills, and was based off one of the greatest horror stories ever written.
So cheers to the Loser’s Club, and…freaking clowns!!
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