Fortune Cookies Aren't Scary

Rating: 5/10 (8 September 2019)

The first It wasn't scary, but it was fun watching the kids interact with each other and having their friendship grow. Like the Goonies but with a killer clown.
The reason it wasn't scary however is that it relied too much on predictable jump scares and not enough on taking its time and genuinely creeping the audience out. 99% of horror elements consisted of look at something - dramatic pause - jump scare and loud noises. Rinse and repeat. A jump scare isn't something that genuinely scares someone, it's just a reflex. To really scare someone you genuinely have to creep them out and there were moments like that: the Georgie scene in the beginning, Bev's abusive father, etc. But they were few and far between.
This chapter doubles down on these weak elements of the first It movie, mixes in a gratuitous amount of CGI, and loses a lot of the charm of the Goonies since they're adults now. Although completely capably acted by all the adults and their chemistry still works well, it's not as endearing the second time around, with grown ups. To boot the best thing about the Loser Squad is always their interactions with each other but instead a large portion of the middle of the film is them all on their own for individual rinse and repeat jumpscare scenes. An entire block of scenes that to me, in a three hour film, should have been cut.
So with It Chapter Two you have a movie that still isn't particularly terrifying, and when compared to the first one, it's bad elements are even more plentiful, and it's good elements aren't as good. A proper formula for a dissapointing sequel.