“IT” is “two” disappointing
Pennywise the Dancing Clown makes his return in “IT Chapter Two,” which was released on Sept. 6 as a sequel to the highly successful “IT” from 2017. “IT Chapter Two” takes place 27 years later and features our original gang of clown fighters as adults, all of whom have parted ways and largely forgotten the horrors of Derry, Maine. However, Pennywise has been sighted again and the group must return to Derry to defeat the evil once and for all.
Prior to seeing the movie, we were a little put off by the reviews found online. On Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, “IT Chapter Two” has a rating of 63 and 59 percent respectively. Additionally, several audience reviews claimed the movie was long, cliched and disappointing. However, remembering how good “IT” was, we decided to follow through and give the movie a chance. In a mostly empty theater, we saw the movie and left disappointed.
First off, “IT Chapter Two” rings in at a whopping two hours and 50 minutes. Although there are several phenomenal movies that are longer in length, this is not one of them. The movie feels extremely long, and we could not help checking our phones at several points to gauge how much time was left. This is largely due to the subpar plot, which drags on and provides little excitement. The only mildly exciting part was when Pennywise turned into a giant spider at the end of the movie, which was pretty ridiculous after a couple of minutes.
Furthermore, “IT Chapter Two” failed to jump out of the structure of a typical horror movie. All the jump scares were predictable and many of the characters served no purpose other than to add “horror” to the movie. While we thought it was mostly going to be centered around Pennywise, it turned out to be Pennywise’s zombies that took the spotlight. Henry Bowers, the main characters’ bully in “IT,” also makes a return as he escapes jail with a knife and a zombie companion. But after stabbing Eddy in the face and attempting to murder Mike, he ends up being killed after a roughly ten minutes of screentime, with his overall purpose in the movie being a head scratcher.
Overall, “IT Chapter Two” is approximately three hours that we will never get back. If you are a huge Stephen King fan, it might be worth your time to see the movie. But if you are looking for a horror movie that is as good as the first installment of the franchise was, we recommend you stay away.
