It Continues

Rating: 7/10 (9 September 2019)

It Chapter Two, the follow up to It, picks up where the original left off. The kids have all grown up and the demon clown is back to terrorize them. Or has it?
Chapter Two suffers from a bit of an identity problem. It's one part Poltergeist, legitimately tense and mind bending horror, and one part... Ghostbusters. Maybe it was just the theater I was in, but there were a surprising number of laughs in this movie. It also can't decide if it should focus on the adults or on the flashbacks with the kids.
The flashbacks also directly lead into the films other main issue. The pacing is all off. The beginning and end or spot on but the middle definitely drags and I started to feel the 169 minute runtime of the movie.
It's not all bad though. The performances are spot on, everyone fits their roles with no real outliers. That said, there are a couple that go above and beyond. James McAvoy and Bill Skarsgard are exceptional but everyone ends up being upstaged by Bill Hader who absolutely runs away with this one.
Performances aside, the visuals are stunning. Penny wise is all about weird and twisted displays, so the visual effects have to be exceptional or the whole thing would fall apart and fortunately they deliver in every scene.
In the end, it's a good, fun movie. It's far from flawless but it's got plenty of honest fun and strong emotions with legitimate tension to satisfy. Absolutely worth being seen on the big screen and will warrant future views as well.