✯✯✯½

It is difficult to figure out how one could follow up the brilliance of 2017's It. The way it managed to successfully capture horror, heart and humor blew me, and a majority of audiences, away. When it had been announced that director Andy Muschietti and writer Gary Dauberman were returning to adapt the second half of Stephen King's 1986 novel, it got me extremely hyped. While It Chapter Two isn't as strong as its predecessor, there is still a lot to admire about the sequel.

Set in 2016, the Losers Club return to Derry, Maine twenty-seven years after defeating Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), as IT returns to terrorize the town once more. Each of the members are damaged in their respective ways, but coming together will help them destroy their fears and end the clown that has become deadlier and just as terrifying as ever. The incredible group of actors portraying the Losers Club as adults are led by James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader. It Chapter Two's top aspect are the performances, as everyone across the board is phenomenal. Hader's Richie was the standout of the film, with him not only shining from a comedic perspective, as expected from a Saturday Night Live alum. He's remarkable in the dramatic sequences as well, with the film showcasing his arc as the best.

The suspense is there throughout It Chapter Two with a moment involving McAvoy's Bill trapped inside a fun house at a carnival trying to save a young kid. The idea of Muschietti having silence until Skarsgård's Pennywise appear behind a glass mirror was brilliant. One of the highlights of the previous It was the use of suspense that was built up without feeling too generic, compared to other mainstream horror films. In the second half of the film, Muschietti would show each character experiencing a terrifying encounter with IT both in 1989 and in 2016. Even though the film was nowhere near as scary as the previous, it was still very well-executed.

There shouldn't be anyone pushing aside how much heart is in both of these It films and not only is Richie's arc relevant to that, but the relationships that blossom between each of these characters. Their friendship was beautifully executed in It, but it goes even further with It Chapter Two and leaves the audiences preparing to cry. That can particularly be said about the arc between Richie and Eddie, played wonderfully by James Ransone. The banter between them as kids, played by Finn Wolfhard and Jack Dylan Grazer respectively, in the previous film was a delight. However, it was more grounded here and once the third act hits, it manages to get to the audience member and I was sobbing.

While there are a lot of positives surrounding It Chapter Two, there were a few aspects that left me unimpressed. It was great seeing the child actors reprise their roles in this film for flashback sequences, but the deaging CGI work done on the children was very off putting. There have been a few times in film were deaging technology would look flawlessly, like with how Marvel has done it. Sometimes it worked in It Chapter Two, but other times not so much. The audio from the characters too, in said flashbacks, was also confusing to me. You'd think for a studio film with a big budget would've executed this better.

However, the biggest flaw with the film is the bloated runtime of 169 minutes. While it is very cool to call this film an epic, there was absolutely no need for It Chapter Two to be as long as it was. I was definitely glued to the screen for the nearly 3-hour long film, but there were moments that dragged and made the pacing slower than a snail. The previous It did a great job of flowing together nicely and while there have been films in 2019 with long runtimes, such as Avengers: Endgame (181 minutes) and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (160 minutes), they found ways to make themselves work with their lengthy runtimes. It Chapter Two has no desire of being as long as it is, but hey, what can you do about that?

In the end, what makes It Chapter Two is how enjoyable of a follow-up it is to It and while it wasn't perfect in the long haul, there was still a lot to like from it. I'm proud to have enjoyed the two-part adaptation that Muschietti had brought to screen and if he can tackle another King novel, that would be a delight to see. Horror isn't my favorite genre and throughout the years I've come to admire it very much. Pennywise the Dancing Clown will forever haunt my dreams and leave me speechless, and I'm happy to have had a brilliant filmmaker like Muschietti bring this story to life.