It: Chapter Two has finally hit the big screen, and while the epic conclusion to the adaptation
of Stephen King's 1986 novel It has largely left fans satisfied, a fair number of critics
weren't so impressed.
Fans of the original book and the films are likely to shoot down a few of the pervasive
criticisms of the flick with these arguments.
Several changes were made to the character of Derry Library resident Mike Hanlon and
criticisms around these changes can be confusing.
All of the Losers are bullied, but in King's novel, Henry Bowers' bullying of Mike was
particularly awful because of Bowers' unrestrained racism.
Some observers took issue with the fact that, in both movies, the racist element the bullying
against Mike was substantially toned down, leading to charges of squeamishness on the
part of director Andy Muschietti and screenwriter Gary Dauberman.
But the racist nature of the Bowers gang's bullying of Mike is certainly implied, if
no racial slurs are used on screen.
"Stay the f--- out of my town!"
And it's worth remembering that the films are set 31 years later than the novel, with
Chapter One set in 1989 rather than 1958.
Racism is, of course, still pervasive today, but it's not a huge stretch to say that the
use of overt slurs was more likely to be encountered in the '50s than the '80s.
And neither film really suffered from the filmmakers' decision to make the racial aspect
of Bowers' antagonism toward Mike more subtle.
The decision was the obvious byproduct not only of the time period switch, but of adapting
a 33-year old novel.
Another difference between literary Mike and cinematic Mike is the fate of his parents;
they were incorporated into Mike's tragic backstory in the movies, having burned to
death inside a locked apartment while young Mike watched helplessly.
A newspaper headline conspicuously shown in It: Chapter Two refers to a pair of "crackheads"
who set themselves on fire in front of their young son, but this is later revealed to be
one of Pennywise's tricks.
After the malevolent entity is defeated, the true headline is revealed, and it's made clear
that Mike's parents actually died in an electrical fire.
The reason for this change is fairly obvious: For narrative reasons, the poor kid needed
a good dose of trauma.
And the fake headline plays off of the Bowers gang's racially charged bullying.
But one spectacularly wrongheaded review by Slate's Jack Hamilton opined that the change
itself smacked of racism.
He wrote:
"To transform the only black protagonist from the child of responsible, nurturing parents
into the child of negligent crack cocaine addicts is far worse than lazy writing; it's
to actively draw from a deeply racist set of cultural tropes."
We guess he must have been yawning really wide or looking at his watch when the true
newspaper headline was revealed.
Of all the critical gripes leveled at It: Chapter Two, by far the most common had to
do with the film's nearly three-hour run time.
The film was labeled "arduous," "muddled," and "meandering."
"Why?
What is taking so long?
I wasted all day here for you!"
Of course, King's novel is more than 1,100 pages long, and a huge amount of material
was left out in bringing the story to the screen.
Some elements were combined into details in the films' story, such as the fire that killed
Mike's parents being a clear reference to the novel's fire at the Black Spot, a historical
event which used to illustrate Pennywise's centuries-long influence on Derry.
Those going into It: Chapter Two expecting a brisk, breezily plotted ride to the final
showdown either weren't familiar with the source material, or were expecting Dauberman
and Muschietti to take far more liberties than they did.
The individual and collective journeys of the Losers Club play directly into how they
deal with the horror of that final confrontation, and if they had been given short shrift, it's
likely that many of these same critics would have been complaining about that.
Many of It: Chapter Two's critics also took issue with its humorous tone, in particular
the wisecracks the adult members of the Losers Club are prone to lobbing at each other as
they prepare to face off against a horror so unimaginable that they almost all forgot
their first encounter with It.
Much of the humor is even intertwined with the horror, as with a brilliant visual homage
to John Carpenter's 1982 classic The Thing.
But it's clear for some of the characters, the humor is there to mask the fear.
It's the old "whistling past the graveyard" trope; one laughs so that they may not soil
themselves out of sheer terror.
The Losers Club is an irreverent bunch in both the novel and the films, and the banter
doesn't just have the effect of entertaining the audience, it also keeps them from going
insane.
If anything, the humor is even dialed down from the book.
Perhaps the most frustrating reviews of It: Chapter Two were those that completely whiffed
in pinpointing the film's themes.
Take, for example, this excerpt from the review of NBC News' Noah Berlatsky:
"Chapter Two presents itself as an exploration of nostalgia and memory.
The adults magically forget their childhood adventures when they move away from Derry,
and the movie is about them reacquainting themselves with their past friendships and
with their true selves upon their return."
What the Losers are reacquainting themselves with, voluntarily or not, is the horror of
their youth - the searing, inescapable trauma which many of us deal with, and which is often
buried not by some magic, but as a form of emotional self-defense.
Dauberman spelled this out in an interview with Inverse.
"I think as an adult, we all have some repressed trauma somewhere in us.
I'm the same age as the Losers in [It: Chapter Two].
I followed up on my own childhood, and how easy it is for memories to fade.
Even the more traumatic ones.
Like getting details wrong, or [asking], 'Did that happen?
When?
I can't remember.'"
The biggest bully of all
The esoteric ending of King's novel is practically unfilmable.
The filmmakers behind It: Chapter Two offered up their own interpretation, and of course,
many critics jumped all over it: As a monstrous Pennywise menaces them, the Losers essentially
take away his power by ridiculing him until he's physically small enough that they can
rip out and destroy his still-beating heart.
At least one observer came somewhat close to the mark by stating that the Losers "sort
of bully [Pennywise] to death" during a conversation with Muschietti, only for the director to
set him straight:
"I didn't see it as bullying so much as it was about reversing the power of belief on
this creature, who uses belief as a weapon to kill his victims…For the first time,
it's the Losers who have this power, and they start telling him what he is…You're a headless
boy; you're a weak old woman.
And finally they converge on the concept of a clown, which is just the most helpless and
powerless thing…The power of belief is Pennywise's power, but it's also his biggest weakness."
So it is with all bullies, whose victims must feel weak for them to feel powerful.
Pennywise is simply the biggest bully of them all.
So once that "power of belief" is taken away, he has nothing left.
"Losers stick together."
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