इट चैप्टर टू

In 1913, Henry Ford introduced the assembly line to the Ford Motor Company. He made a ton of money and was hailed as a leading innovator. Now just a hundred years later, director Andy Musciehtti brings that same assembly line principle to It Chapter Two as he serves up his scary products in the exact fashion as the one before.

This sequel to the highest-grossing horror movie of all time (unadjusted) takes place 27 years later in the same town of Derry, Maine. The rambunctious kids are all adults now and have gone on their separate paths to some form of success. Unfortunately, the good fortune for each is put to an end by the return of Pennywise, who seeks more victims for his twisted games. Being the only ones that have stopped the evil force, the adults must come together again to put an end to this bloody mess.

Director Andy Muschietti returns behind the camera after the record-breaking success he earned from 2017's "It". For the second time around, Muschietti goes even bigger and bolder than before, both in terms of the horror set pieces and the length.

When it comes to giving audiences what they came to see, Muschietti delivers on adding even more blood, gore, and creepiness. Pennywise's indescribable powers get even more creative as his prey are stalked and slaughtered with unnerving brutality.

The biggest fault that plagued the previous film was its recycling of cheap jump scares that were meant to artificially hold your attention. That same problem is even more glaring in the sequel as any scary moments are just startling moments where something pops out at the screen. The more they happen, the more predictable and boring they are to watch.

A runtime is never indicative of quality by itself, every movie should earn its length through skill and craftsmanship. And at 170 minutes, "It Chapter Two" falls way short of earning its record-breaking runtime. Instead of the horror being a slow burn, it's more of a slow churn as the recycled jump scares quickly lose their minuscule luster and make this already long film feel even longer.

Screenwriter Gary Dauberman takes up the impossible task of adapting Stephen King, a challenge that has killed the careers of countless adapters before him.

Dauberman tries his best to break away from the ridiculousness within King's novel, but his efforts end up backfiring on him and make the film even more awkward as some elements are left in and some left out. The story wants you to take it pretty seriously, but keeping in the weird elements make that almost an impossible task.

Muschietti didn't do much to justify the excessive length, but Dauberman should shoulder more of the blame with his uneven pacing. The film starts great with the together and playing off each other with a fun and brisk pace. Then, against all logic, Dauberman has them split up for ninety minutes, severely slowing things to a crawl and forcing the jump scares to keep you awake.

The highest regards should go to casting director Rich Delia as he has brilliantly put together a group of adult actors that uncannily look like their younger counterparts. Unfortunately, good looks are the only quality some actors possess here.

James McAvoy does fine as Bill. The most evident acting trait he shows off is his struggle to hide his Scottish accent with a less than convincing New England one.

Having a rocky 2019, to say the least, Jessica Chastain follows up the bomb that was "Dark Phoenix" with another subpar performance. She doesn't shine as brightly as Sophia Lillis' younger Beverly despite being the more acclaimed actress with a lot more screen time.

The standout performances come from the two Bills in the cast, Hader and Skarsgård. Hader plays adult Richie and fairs the best in the cast at toeing the line between drama and comedy.

Skarsgård as Pennywise is a sight to see but unfortunately doesn't get seen for long stretches. Between him and Heath Ledger's Joker, future performances for clowns now have an insanely high bar to reach.

With over five hours of material between two films, the "It" series has come to a less than satisfying close with "It Chapter Two". There are some things to admire Muschietti and co. for doing or trying to do. But for every great Bill Skarsgård moment (which is all of them), there were just as many moments of wasted potential due to unoriginal filmmaking. Overall, between its highs and lows, "It Chapter Two" makes for a semi-enjoyable time. Just make sure to bring a seat cushion.

Okay so saw the first remake of the movie, was absolutely in love. I went and saw the second one today and didn't feel any where near close to what I felt for the first one. It was super long but that isn't even what upset me. It was just lacking in delivery! Pennywise was hardly in the movie. He was in it but they spent so much time soul searching the past of the characters that the real present stuff went lacking. Needless to say the first remake is an all time favorite. This one, I definitely should've waited until it came out on DVD. Just being honest. The first one was way to good for this to be part 2. It didn't deliver the expectation that the first one set.

I really, realllly wanted to like this film. As a huge fan of the original mini-series (and EVERYTHING Tim Curry), I knew I'd have a challenge going into both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 with an open mind. I had to separate. I didn't have as high of expectations as I did for Chapter 1 as Part 2 of the mini series was much weaker than the Part 1 anyway as well as Stephen King's It (Book).

The actors were great. Even the first few jump scares were decent, and then it just became overkill. And not scary whatsoever. All of the CGI monsters look ridiculous and completely take you out of the moment. I grew up watching 80s/90s horror (AND LOVING IT). The baddies were REAL and TERRIFYING. For example, Mrs. Massey, the bloated bathtub corpse in The Shining. That was a real, completely horrifying image that has stayed with me 30 years after I First saw the movie. I don't understand the obsession with CGI when there's no need for it.

Sadly, this movie was just a drawn out bore.

In comparison to the first chapter of this remake, then the 2019 "It: Chapter Two" was just a massive step back in the wrong direction.

Why? Well, first of all, Pennywise wasn't scary at all. In fact, it was progressively getting more and more difficult to take him serious as an embodiment of evil as the movie progressed, because he was just too goofy. And whereas he was genuinely disturbing in the first chapter, the clown was just loosing it in chapter two.

And running at close to three hours, "It: Chapter Two" was just too long, and too much of a drag to sit through, especially when so much of the contents just felt like it was there to fill in the movie and add to the play time of the movie. There were so many things that could easily have been trimmed away without the storyline suffering.

The CGI was good, and definitely carried the movie a long way. But some of the CGI such as the long-limbed old woman chasing Beverly was just too comical and didn't really feel like it fit into the movie.

It was nice that they actually had Stephen King himself in the movie for a short cameo.

They had a good selection of casted actors and actresses to perform in the movie as the adult versions of the children that Pennywise stalked and fought. It was really nice to see James McAvoy in the movie.

All in all, this wasn't really a fulfilling conclusion of the first chapter, and I was left with a feeling of 'was that really it?' when the movie ended. The movie was not as intense and interesting as the 2017 "It: Chapter One" movie was.

I am rating "It: Chapter Two" six out of ten stars.

It was entertaining, but they seemed confused as to whether the movie was supposed to be horror or a comedy. Several scenes had the audience trying to laugh and then scream, practically in the same breath. For a 3 hour movie, they should've better managed the emotional pacing of the film.