Despite its great cast and faithfulness to the novel, the overly-long sequel to “It” can’t seem to consistently conjure up the scares. It’s been decades since I read the novel, and I’ve never watched the 1990 miniseries, so going in I only had vague expectations of the plot. (After reading summaries of both, I’d say the new film sticks closer to the book, with a few bits from the miniseries, plus some original ideas.) “It Chapter Two” eliminates much of the character development, and either ditches, or barely uses, some of the side characters. This makes it harder to identity with the adult losers club. On top of that, they never quite recapture the chemistry that the younger versions of the characters built up over the length of the first film. The cast does a good job, but Bill Skarsgard steals every scene he’s in as the psychotic Pennywise. As far as scares go, the film misses the mark. While there are some frightening and creepy sequences, there’s never really any sense that the characters are in danger. The flashbacks suffer from the fact that we know everybody lived to fight another day, while the present day stuff fails because it feels like the plot implies they all need to make it to the third act. While the climax does deliver on the tension, the more metaphysical moments are a bit weak. The ending is fine, but loses some good stuff from the novel, especially what could’ve been some impressive visuals. Overall, the effects are solid, although the CG is a bit weak sometimes. And while the de-aging looks fine, you can tell there’s something just a bit off.
**1/2 out of *****