The summer season is now over, but while August may have been slow, September is kicking off with what is expected to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the year. The town of Derrry is back in the spotlight with the Losers Club returning to fight a little bit of evil clown ass. Get ready for IT: Chapter Two.
Just remember, I’m not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they’ll end up on the Tomatometer. Let’s take a look at This Rotten Week has to offer.
Two years after first making their way to the big screen in Andy Muschietti’s IT, the Losers Club of Derry, Maine are back to restore real estate values to the town that has kids picked off at an alarming rate every 27 years. I can’t imagine the local brokers are doing all that well considering a family can’t really move in without worrying they’ll leave with less kids than when they started.
IT: Chapter Two reunites the original cast of kids from the previous installment while also moving into the future with the Losers Club all grown up. They take on good looking/famous forms of James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, Andy Bean, and James Ransome. All except Mike (Mustafa) have left Derry, but come back when they realize that their childhood efforts to kill Pennywise didn’t quite work. Once again the town’s elementary school population is disappearing, and the group made a promise to one another to do something about it if that were to ever happen.
Director Andy Muchietti is back after helming the first in the series, IT (87%), as well as Mama (64%). It’s hard to imagine the follow up eclipsing the original simply because it was such a massive critical and box office success, and usually that leads to a lot more voices giving input behind the scenes. But the production really did a great job putting together its ensemble cast, and I expect it to still finish with a “Fresh” rating.
As predicted, Don’t Let Go (Predicted: 34% Actual: 42%) dropped a few percentage points (five to be exact) over the course of the week, and my prediction landed with in 10 percent range of success. Most critics agreed that the premise is interesting and that the leads are solid, but that the execution is lacking. Juggling a murder mystery with time travel/supernatural events it a tough climb for even the best filmmakers and storytellers. You can’t fault them for trying because when it works (Looper for example) it can be really great. But this one just didn’t pull it off. The end of summer/Pre-Labor Day releases usually have low expectations attached, and this one seems to have met them.