Andy Muschietti’s 2nd half follow-up to his massive 2017 hit does have a few good things going for it: it’s reasonably well-paced despite its incredible length, it boasts a very entertaining Bill Hader performance, and it gets a lot of mileage out of the strength of Stephen King’s source material. However the near 3-hour running time is littered with missteps from the very first scene. The horror sequences are a repetitive onslaught of overdone CGI that have little lasting impact given the majority of them are flashbacks and disconnected from the narrative. It’s not just the scares that are overdone but every dramatic beat has an element of being over the top while each frightening jolt is served with a punchline making the movie feel tonally all over the map. The real horror though lies with the kid versions of these characters who’ve been digitally de-aged to their pre-growth-spurt selves and the results are fatally distracting, laughably baffling, and completely unnerving. If there ever was a reason to completely do-away with that practice, this is it. Fans of the novel and the first film might find enough to enjoy, but this conclusion to King’s seminal tale ultimately disappoints. Grade: C-
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