Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy should have passed on this film

Rating: 3/10 (4 January 2020)

I read the book in 1988. Dragged it around from class to class in HS slyly reading because I couldn't put it down. This Part II abomination is an absolute disgrace to the book and even the original mini series from the 90s which was perfectly cast but the ending fell flat only because of the monster spider looked so fake. Otherwise, it was brilliant.
Only the 2 actors named above in this current film (the teens cast for Part I were good) and their talent was so misplaced (except SkarsgÃ¥rd who was brilliant) that the movie was lopsided and became stupid. Only the scenes of Beverly's "journey" were realistic with tension and the storyline strayed so far from the book, the plot was misjointed.
In a nutshell, I paused the movie at 1hr 38 min because I was falling asleep from boredom and watched the rest of this hot mess just now a day later. The actor who played Mike was awful. His character is the binding to bring them back together and the acting failed miserably. And Ben? Dreadful and appeared too young for the rest of the cast by 10 years.
Gah...what a waste of 3 hours.
Best part: didn't waste money paying for a theater ticket