Really wanted film to end around 2 hour mark

Rating: 3/10 (13 October 2019)

I can't say that I understand everything about this movie, nor have I read the book, nor do I understand the prior It movies well. And of course there is always the problem of converting a (long) book into a movie; but this is a movie, and one is not required to read the book prior to seeing the movie. I just got lost in this movie. There were lots of roaming plots that did not seem to go anywhere and did not seem to tie together. The acting and casting was good. The humor was OK; perhaps a bit over-done for a horror movie, but OK. It is loaded with jump-scares and just things designed to look creepy or gross. The protagonists often engage with some creepy monster as if they are in a life-threatening situation, and then they just miraculously leave and everything is OK. E.g. when the female character (Beverly) encounters that old lady in her dad's apartment; the creature chases her around and then at the end Beverly just leaves the front door. So was this creature actually trying to hurt Beverly, or was this just some mind-game with no real threat to her? (And neither answer is satisfying.) And somewhat similarly toward the end a creepy old woman (perhaps the same woman?) comes up out of the water and attacks Beverly, but this creature is easily defeated; what's the point? Was this just a weak monster, or was this just a scare-tactic? The whole plot with Mike tricking them with that old indian thing was weird; did he think that would work, just because it would give them confidence? (Apparently so. And note that in order to do all of this he also drugged his friend with that root that caused hallucinations.) (And so all of this stuff about getting an old item to sacrifice was crap; e.g. the inhaler, shower cap. Wasn't this the sole reason the went to that old (dangerous) underground fort?) And then in the end, once that placebo-plan failed, they had no plan, until they decided to have Pennywise chase them into a small space to make him smaller to kill him. Then suddenly this plan morphed into sort of insulting the clown which made him smaller, and then they just ripped out his heart and mashed it up. So that's all it took to defeat him? And they come up with that plan in the caverns in 10 seconds and yet they could not think of that in the preceding days (weeks, years)? Unfortunately I really just wanted this movie to end around 2 hours, in any fashion. The "Losers" can win, or Pennywise can win, as long as the credits roll. Perhaps it all works better in the book. Just my two pennies worth.