The new film adaptation of the vast novel, and considered by many, with the permission of ‘The Shining’, as the best of Stephen King , has reached a milestone by being ranked number 1 in the global Box Office.
Although this positioning at the box office level, had to bring with it the first impressions of specialized critics, and apparently if there is something that characterizes them around this sequel to Andy Muschietti , it is precisely a marked discrepancy between them.
Again… Less is more
The first adaptation of King’s novel was for television in 1990, considering that the novel had been publishedfour years before, it made sense that within the context, that there would not be a long distance between one work and the other. That first adaptation lasted a total of 192 minutes.
Tim Curry as Pennywise in ‘It’ (1990) | Warner Bros
If we add the two films directed by Muschietti , we will obtain a result of 304 minutes, practically doubling the minutes of his first adaptation. In the 90s, the miniseries format favored to a certain extent the structuring by episodes, proving this version to be somewhat more coherent in this aspect than in the two new films.
And it is that less is more; ‘It: Chapter 2’, lasts almost a total of three hours, so a new miniseries could have been made that would better reflect the already complicated structure of the novel, of more than a thousand pages. Criticism has inevitably influenced this, but it has not been the only aspect to mention.
King is much more satisfied with these two new versions | The Independent
Muschietti: a director absorbed by the industry
Many are those who mention, which gives the feeling that although Muchietti has good intentions as a filmmaker, and a great cinematographic eye, if he continues along the path dictated by the studios, he will end up being absorbed, losing all its independence to work without following the parameters of an industry, increasingly obsessed with bringing people to theaters as it is.
Muschietti, director of the new adaptations of the novel | New Line Cinema
A similar case would be that of Jon Favreau . But leaving this aside, although there are critics that highlight that this sequel is much more mature and deep, given that its cast has also grown, therefore it cannot be given the adolescent focus of the previous installment, it is also no less true that others have highlighted, that there is nothing new that we did not see in chapter 1. Others, on the contrary, have defined it as “deeper, more chilling and fun” than its predecessor.
The Losers Club, thirty years later | New Line Cinema
Even with this, the good work of the cast has been praised, this time The Losers are Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransome and Bill Hader. Likewise, the setting, the photography and the music have been well received, despite their excesses at the narrative level.
