It Chapter Two runs slow, boring and long.
The film takes off 27 years after the horrors of the American small town Derry, where Pennywise, the child-eating clown who lives in the sewer, hunted a group of teens known as the “Losers Club” until they were hanging on the verge of insanity.
Pennywise is back in the game because he is supposed to return every 27 years. The members of the club must leave their adult lives behind and return to Derry because they promised to do their part, should the saw-teethed funnyman appear again.
The characters are portrayed in a psychological game where director Andy Muschietti, who helmed the first part as well, uses adolescent flashbacks as a tool. Bev, Bill, Richie, Mike, Ben, Eddie and Stanley—the members of the Losers Club—are about to face their worst fears.
But in an attempt to bring alive the last pages of the horrifying novel by Stephen King in a screenplay by Gary Dauberman, Muschietti fails by patronizing the viewer. There are too many flashbacks, crumbs along the path to help the viewer navigate as if the director didn’t trust the present-day story enough to keep the viewer glued to the seat. The moviegoers find their way out of the theater with less.
There are genuinely scary and even funny moments in the film that runs for 2 hours and 50 minutes, but the uneven pacing makes it more boring than spine-tingling.
The actors, such as Oscar-nominated Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty (2012), The Help (2011)) as Bev hold their poker faces and engage in short dialogue throughout the film. Funny guy Richie Tozier, played by Bill Hader (Trainwreck (2015)), is more annoying than a man of wit.
Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise, though, is still as creepy as it gets.
And that is about the only good thing about It Chapter Two.
‘It Chapter Two’ premieres in Finland on September 6.
