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IT Chapter Two‘s existence was confirmed just before 2017’s IT was released in cinemas, hence why Warner slotted in a reference to that film being just “Chapter One“, thus indicating that the second would come in due course.
However, while I knew I’d see it at some point, I wasn’t in a huge rush, and the fact that the film runs 11 minutes short of three hours also put paid to me watching it on the big screen. I find it’s rare that a film needs to take more than two hours in length, and in recent years for those films which go way over, Interstellar certainly had a lengthy tale to tell, while Blade Runner 2049 could easily have been shorter, but then they’d have put the extra content back in at some point, and for a film like that, if you’re going to see it, you may as well watching it on the big screen.
Either way, if I had the chance to vote for an intermission in films running over 135 minutes, I would cast my vote for that. After all, referendums are never divisive, yes?
The first film was set in 1989, with this one coming 27 years later… 2016, for those who didn’t do the maths. Or math.
Pennywise makes an early return in this film, and the best part of the first thirty minutes is all about getting everyone in The Losers Club back together in Derry, Maine, led by Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy – one of many just turning up to cash the cheque), a writer, who is trying to get to the perfect ending for his latest movie.
However, most of what follows is generic jump-scares, including fortune cookies with a difference, and at least one CGI-filled set-piece for each main character, but all of which have a lack of coherence, and leading to the entire film going on way too long. I say “at least one sequence per character” because it feels like it never ends. If they’d stuck to one each, to cut down on the running time, that would’ve made more sense and have been more tolerable, but… a film lasting 170 minutes when it doesn’t need to?
In fact, with one jump-scare scene after another, it makes you feel like you’re on a rudderless ship, careering through choppy waters… the movie could last 30 minutes, or it could last 10 hours. What on earth resulted in director Andy Muschietti deciding upon a ridiculous (for a standard film) length of ten minutes short of three hours? (Okay, 169 minutes and about 25 seconds…)
In fact, one character sums things right up when something weird happens late on in the film, one asks if they should run, and the other replies, “This is Derry. I’m kinda getting used to it(!)”
Yep, we’ve all given up caring by that point. It’s like an overlong, bad Freddy Krueger movie, and I thought of that before one of his films was namechecked.
And as is also commented, given that it doesn’t take them long to figure out what a bad idea is to return because it can lead to certain death, why don’t they all just up and leave?
However, there is a particular cameo which did make me laugh…
The picture and sound quality is flawless, delivering the heavy audio when required, whilst bringing across all light and dark scenes as they should be.
The extras are as follows, and fans of the film will surely get a lot out of it:
- The Summers of IT Chapter One: You’ll Float Too (35:38) and The Summers of IT Chapter Two: IT Ends (39:30): These two featurettes – 5 and 6 chapters, respectively – contain general chat about making the film from the cast, director Andy Muschietti, producer Barbara Muschietti and Stephen King.
- Pennywise Lives Again (9:55): Concentrating on Bill Skarsgård’s role in the movies.
- The Meeting of the Losers’ Club Has Officially Begun (8:12): The kids from the first film.
- Finding The Deadlights (6:18): More contribution from Stephen King.
- Audio description: Does exactly what it says on the tin.
- Audio commentary: from director Andy Muschietti.
The main menu has a piece of the theme which only plays once, and just features a still of the eyes of Pennywise, as per the cover. There are a paltry 19 chapters (the last one for the end credits), and subtitles are in a ton of languages which are listed below.
IT Chapter Two is out now on Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray Steelbook, 4K Blu-ray, DVD and Amazon Video
(click on the image for the full-size 4K picture)
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
3 10 8 6 |
| OVERALL | 7 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 170 minutes
Studio: Warner Bros
Year: 2019
Released: January 13th 2020
Cat.no: 5000267269
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: Dolby Atmos True HD (English), DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (Italian), Dolby Digital 5.1: Castilian Spanish, Polish, Thai
Subtitles: English SDH, Italian SDH, Cantonese, Castilian Spanish, Complex Chinese, Greek, Korean, Polish, Thai
Format: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW (2.8K) (3.4K), Dolby Vision, Anamorphic Hawk Scope)
Disc Format: 2*BD50
Director: Andy Muschietti
Producers: Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Barbara Muschietti
Novel: Stephen King
Screenplay: Gary Dauberman
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch
Cast:
Bill Denbrough: James McAvoy
Beverly Marsh: Jessica Chastain
Richie Tozier: Bill Hader
Mike Hanlon: Isaiah Mustafa
Ben Hanscom: Jay Ryan
Eddie Kaspbrak: James Ransone
Stanley Uris: Andy Bean
Pennywise: Bill Skarsgård
Young Bill Denbrough: Jaeden Martell
Young Stanley Uris: Wyatt Oleff
Young Eddie Kaspbrak: Jack Dylan Grazer
Young Richie Tozier: Finn Wolfhard
Young Beverly Marsh: Sophia Lillis
Young Mike Hanlon: Chosen Jacobs
Young Ben Hanscom: Jeremy Ray Taylor
Henry Bowers: Teach Grant
Young Henry Bowers: Nicholas Hamilton
Hobo / The Witch: Javier Botet
Adrian Mellon: Xavier Dolan
Peter – Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.