While this film isn't all that bad, it isn't great either and having to endure such a mediocre movie for almost 3 hours is painful. Know your role.
All of the references to bad endings makes me think that is some sort of reference to Stephen King but I have never read any of his books, and also he looks terrifying in his cameo. So I don't know if Billy becoming a writer is supposed to be a cool Easter egg or something but it's just kind of meh. Also the fact that so many of these characters end up becoming rich and successful is so annoying, but that is the white men that end up having stable careers so it's forgivable. What isn't though is that Eddie knows so much about the codes and regulations but the storm drain stuff from my last review is still present but there's no need to rehash that here.
The characters in this film are so much more boring than their child versions from the last film. The only exception is that they got Bill Harder to play a grown up Finn Wolfhard and he is so much better at comedy so his jokes are not as annoying and the deliveries are better. But everyone else is pretty much just being silly and annoying, especially for grown adults who can interact with the rest of the world now and communicate the situation. Even if Mike is the town crazy that shouldn't matter because all the others aren't. Also it's incredibly wack to culturally appropriate Indigenous Peoples and then say they didn't do their own ritual correctly (Ritual of Child is also so funny to those in the know). The aforementioned jokes and all of the comedic elements mixed with the modern horror elements really kept the tone continuously shifting which just made the movie feel so much longer.
I may have just talked myself into lowering the rating on this film but not by much. It is nothing special and just really overstayed its welcome. A movie that absolutely did not justify its runtime and also a sequel that didn't justify its existence.
All of the references to bad endings makes me think that is some sort of reference to Stephen King but I have never read any of his books, and also he looks terrifying in his cameo. So I don't know if Billy becoming a writer is supposed to be a cool Easter egg or something but it's just kind of meh. Also the fact that so many of these characters end up becoming rich and successful is so annoying, but that is the white men that end up having stable careers so it's forgivable. What isn't though is that Eddie knows so much about the codes and regulations but the storm drain stuff from my last review is still present but there's no need to rehash that here.
The characters in this film are so much more boring than their child versions from the last film. The only exception is that they got Bill Harder to play a grown up Finn Wolfhard and he is so much better at comedy so his jokes are not as annoying and the deliveries are better. But everyone else is pretty much just being silly and annoying, especially for grown adults who can interact with the rest of the world now and communicate the situation. Even if Mike is the town crazy that shouldn't matter because all the others aren't. Also it's incredibly wack to culturally appropriate Indigenous Peoples and then say they didn't do their own ritual correctly (Ritual of Child is also so funny to those in the know). The aforementioned jokes and all of the comedic elements mixed with the modern horror elements really kept the tone continuously shifting which just made the movie feel so much longer.
I may have just talked myself into lowering the rating on this film but not by much. It is nothing special and just really overstayed its welcome. A movie that absolutely did not justify its runtime and also a sequel that didn't justify its existence.