It: Chapter Two

An endless, mostly unwatchable sequel, It: Chapter Two follows the grown-up members of the so-called Losers Club as they reluctantly reunite in Derry to once again battle an ancient, demonic force. Filmmaker Andy Muschietti, working from Gary Dauberman’s script, admittedly does a nice job of immediately drawing the viewer into the proceedings, as It: Chapter Two boasts a briskly-paced opening stretch that effectively introduces the various heroes and their powerful antagonist – with, for example, a creepy scene set at a county fair seemingly setting the stage for a stirring, engrossing horror flick. It’s disappointing to note, then, that the picture segues into a bloated and aggressively padded-out midsection teeming with pointless exposition and repetitive sequences, as Muschietti makes the disastrous decision to detail the protagonists’ individual exploits and their separate encounters with Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise. (It doesn’t help, certainly, that Pennywise’s entire modus operandi seems to boil down to pranking his victims, as he shows a bizarre and flat-out inexplicable reluctance to kill those in his sights.) The ensuing lack of momentum ensures that It: Chapter Two‘s ludicrous 169 minute running time (!!) is nothing short of interminable, with the movie ultimately building to a ridiculous and entirely tedious climax that’s compounded by a postscript section that seems to go on for at least a half hour. It is, in the end, impossible to label It: Chapter Two as anything more than a complete and total trainwreck of a motion picture, which is a shame given the effectiveness of a few isolated moments and the cast’s efforts. (Bill Hader is especially good here.)

* out of ****