"If it ever comes back, we'll come back too."

Rating: 7/10 (1 October 2019)

After what I thought was a brilliant first installment of "It" by director Andy Muschietti, I felt this follow up was somewhat anti-climactic. While the first film had some genuinely horrifying and unexpected moments, this one seemed to tread on the borders of the phantasmagorical with a make it up as you go sensibility. As adults, the members of the original 'Loser's Club' didn't appear to have the same camaraderie so much as a duty to return to Derry and battle the malevolent evil that resurfaced after twenty seven years. I did get a kick out of the Stephen King cameo, and it would have been neat if the name of his character's antique shop was called 'Needful Things'. There was also that nod to "The Shining" with the 'Here's Johnny' sequence played a couple of times during that frantic exchange. It probably didn't help that I had a hard time with the theater's sound system causing me to miss some of the dialog, and I probably missed some nuance with the characters. IMDb reviewers as I write this give the film a 7.0 rating compared to part one at a 7.4 which I guess is fair enough, though as I mentioned, my top rating of a '10' for 2017's "It" diverges somewhat more compared to this flick.