Disappointing, way too long, but still fun.

Rating: 5/10 (7 September 2019)

Having waited two years for this to come out I am left with a scurry of emotions. While not as good as the first part, in some ways it is better as Pennywise is actually a little bit creepy here compared to his silly demeanor in the first one. However, he reminded me off Freddy Krueger in the last 4 or 5 Freddy sequels where he would say a silly line or two, get a scare then vanish. Skarsgard's Pennywise was always abnormal and silly, but great fun at that. While he is still No Curry (as actually being scary is important) he is not the problem. The problems and there are many is the pacing, writing, character development or lack thereof, and some of the performances.
It starts off with the infamous murder of gay adult Adrian Mellon which thankfully they included as it is one of the most important in the book as well as one of the creepiest. Sadly, here it is rushed and is only done in around five minutes or so. Not good. Xavier Dolan is an excellent actor and Mellon is a very important part of the story relating to Derry in present day so rushing it was a huge mistake. Still. at least it is here even if they stupidly rushed it and did not do much with it as they should have. People who have read the book know what I am talking about.
For a film that is 11 minutes shy of three hours we could have used more character development instead of cheap scares and constant flashbacks back and forth every few minutes. Yes, this happens in the book and it works but in the film not so much. The problem is the grown up losers do not have much to them outside of annoying Richie and uptight Eddie who are spot on. Plus, if people who pay attention at movies, there is a big reveal involving why Richie acts the way he does which is new and it works perfectly. I was not expecting that and it worked even with Hader as Richie.
I enjoyed the film although it is nothing amazing by any standards. Chastain's Beverly and McAvoy's Bill, two very important characters offered nothing here as adults. They finally gave Mike something to do as he is integral to the story and the actors who plays Ben & doomed Stan are fine, but nothing you really care about as that belongs to Richie and Eddie.
Essentially, missed opportunities here and a film the drags for long periods of time when it shouldn't. One would think with how painfully long it is at times and feels even longer at others times, that there would be more insight and character development but nada with the majority of the characters. Skarsgard was funny and effective as always drooling and giggling when on screen and Bill Hader's Ritchie has perfectly timed observations and one liners that pick up scenes where we are bored to tears.
A good film but a disappointing one as it did not need to be this long at all despite the huge size of the epic novel. The ending of Pennywise/It, (let's face it they showed him more as a clown as anything and that is another mistake) was interesting in the way it was handled, but we were left with 20 minutes after the fact of over the top cheesiness by the losers. Some will hate this, some may actually love it, and I'd imagine many may be in my spot acknowledging a mixed bag that often dragged, felt empty and just felt off as a whole.