All the adult actors are well cast and are good visual and emotional counter parts to their younger selves however they're all given very little to do other than be propeled by the strident and single minded plot. The come together, they are disbelieving, they are convinced, they separate, they come together, they confront the badguy. It's structured more like a dated video game rather than a narrative. Bill Hader and James Ransone as Richie and Eddie respectively are the stand outs but that is due more to their innate energy rather than their characters as written. Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, and Mustafa are all fine actors but here their opportunity is simply to slim to do much with. Bill Skarsgård doesn't do much differently than he did in the previous movie and the ending especially sidelines him in favor of over the top and exceptionally ineffective CGI.
At almost three hours the pacing is nothing short of baffling, feeling both too fast to take time for any real character dimension(we know virtually nothing about the adults the children have become) and too slow to develop or maintain any real tension the movie languishes and plods when it should speed and soar culminating in a CGI confrontation that deflates rather than heightens.
Splitting up the story was wise, not intertwining the kid and adult storylines immediately as the book does was a mistake making both installments formulaic and inadvertently diffusing much needed tensions. The focus on jump scares, creatures, and gross out visuals also misses the point of the story completely. It's not about zombies or spiders or baby heads on scorpion bodies, it's about fear. It's about the loss of innocence in your childhood and nostalgia as an adult.
As cheesy as it can be the Tim Curry lead mini-series remains the better adaptation.
Don't See It.
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