It: Chapter Two

This film follows themes like Fear, Trauma, Memory, Identity, Friendship & Unity and Love. The film explores how childhood fears evolve into adults' anxieties. It also depicts how confronting those fears destroys the negative energy around us. The forgotten memory can be viewed in a metaphorical pov for how people suppress their trauma, and recovering memory can be viewed as reclaiming their own identity. The Friendship and Unity is a symbolism to one of the famous phrases " When apart, vulnerable; but when united, Strong ". The Love ( Bill & Georgie, Ben & Beverly, Richie & Eddie ) here is depicted as the counter-force to fear. The creatures' forms are symbolised with the characters' phobias. The acting performances of everyone was amazing. Especially, James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain were incredible. Pennywise the clown, magnificently acted by Bill Skarsgard, is the physical form of an ancient cosmic entity which feeds on fear ( mostly children ). That same fear is shown as its weakness as he should always rely on people getting feared by it. Skarsgard enhances the menacing moments through his expressions that are just maniacal. There are many symbolism in this film. The ritual of Chud being the metaphor for confronting inner demons, the deadlights being the subconscious mind and death being the cost of courage. Andy Muschietti did a great job in balancing horror and heart like the previous film but the horror scene felts a little bit bland and the emotional sequences too felt little bit artificial at some scenes cause the writing was too rushed at parts. They needed some world-building to show the character had grown extending the film's runtime. The writing should have been a little bit better for the screen with the horror part of the film. When they tried to scare with serious intent at some moments, i just laughed as some of it felt funny. The Cinematography by Checco Varese was absolutely fantastic. The camera work was brilliant especially in the Pennywise confrontation scenes. The editing by Jason Ballantine was amazing. The non-linear editing style was pretty helpful for the film. He used match cuts and transitions to maintain continuity between timelines and I should really appreciate those mind-blowing transitions. They were outstanding to watch. The colour palette was muted. Flashbacks were bright while the present is dull indicating the loss of childhood. This film relies a lot on CGI-heavy scares and those were incredibly designed. Practical effects were minimal which is a let-down as the realistic feeling which we get from Chapter 1 at most places were not present in this film. The score by Benjamin Wallfisch was excellent. He used leitmotifs for each character and subtle pianos with the combination of aggressive orchestra during fear sequences. Deep bass and whispering voices were used to simulate the torment. " I knew i wasn't strong enough to go back. I knew i would be a liability to the rest of you. And I couldn't do that. So I took myself off the board. Did it to save you. Did it to save us." You didn't save shit buddy. You were just a coward. These lines were very wrong to be added in the film. Suicide is never an act of courage. Never. Andy was very wrong in depicting that way. It should have been portrayed as an act of shame and weak mentality and feared heart. I heard the book had so much more sequences which haven't been created and the ending was more spiritual than the film's ending. Now iam very excited to read the book. After watching the duology, I just feel like, even though these 2 film were interesting and entertaining, I felt this story should have been directed by someone like Robert Eggers cause the 2 films missed some serious stuff that should have been present. They should have had the feeling of the film The VVitch atmospherically and tonally with some inclusion of dark humour and stuff. Anyways, excited for the prequel series now. Hope it explores everything the book talks about both cosmically and mythically. Half a star extra for my favourite James McAvoy.