Andy Muschietti’s second ‘It’ movie lacks the horror and gravitas of its predecessor. ‘It Chapter Two’ needed more Pennywise.

The 2019 movie manages to be less progressive than the 1986 novel it’s based on.

‘It Chapter Two’ is quite disturbing but loses some of the magic when the focus is on the killer alien clown instead of the Losers.

Pulling off “It Chapter Two” is an almost impossibly tall order. Following up “It,” the first installment in the evil clown saga, director Andy Muschietti has to balance loyalty to Stephen King’s crazy, 1,138-page tome, as well as to the kooky 1990 made-for-TV miniseries starring Tim Curry. Now add the fan factor: the nostalgic original […]

Director Andy Muschietti has absolutely gone for it with the sequel to his 2017 smash Stephen King adaptation, taking big swings and displaying both a muscularity and an elegance to his craft.

The clown's back, and the kids have grown up in part two of Stephen King's saga, which translates to an overlong, but suitably scary sequel.

'It: Chapter 2' brings back Stephen King’s terrifying killer clown — but a near three-hour run time dulls the effect. Peter Travers' review.

The new movie reenacts the death of Charlie Howard, then feeds him to the clown.

The main problem with 'It Chapter Two' is that it goes on, and on, for so very long.

The grown-up Losers Club return to Derry, Maine 17 years later to battle Pennywise once again in Stephen King's epic horror. Read the Empire review.

This carnivalesque sequel throws in shocks aplenty and homages to horror classics, but it lacks depth and precision

Twenty-seven years later, Pennywise is back — and just as bad.

Andy Muschietti's sequel boasts another flawless cast, but a meandering script and tired scares keep it from rising to the top.

The film argues we’re stronger and better when we’re home, building communities that can oppress the oppressors.

'It Chapter Two' is about a group of friends who reunite to do battle with an evil force that resurfaces in their Maine hometown every 27 years and had attempted to kill them when they were preteens back in 1989.

The now-grown-up members of the Losers Gang reunite to take on evil clown Pennywise once again

The first ‘It‘ became a surprise blockbuster in 2017. Does the conclusion live up to the original?

Now that he’s terrorizing the grown-up adults of the Losers’ Club, the twisted clown Pennywise seems a little less frightening.

The starry second part of the Stephen King adaptation coasts on connections from the first film

There’s a prominent through-line in “It: Chapter Two” about great storytellers who can’t quite stick the landing – a challenge director Andy Muschietti faced with this project, no doubt. The theme is, obviously, a meta piece of commentary alluding to the issue many had with Stephen King’s bizarre, lengthy, nightmare-inducing novel. The macroverse, Pennywise’s origins, […]

What's that old saying about too much of a (mediocre) thing? That's the second half of Stephen King's "It" saga, an everything horrific but the kitchen sink thriller destined to be a blockbuster, treated -- by virtue of its excessive length -- as "an event," a signature moment on big screen horror. Derivative, a veritable…

It Chapter 2 downgrades Pennywise's presence amidst the adult Losers' coming together, but is still a funhouse-freaky sequel.

Even in these ‘Stranger Things’-obsessed times, no one expected 2017’s ‘It’ – a second adaptation of a 30-year-old novel – to become a phenomenon. A hit? Sure.

Let’s face it, It’s all about the clown. Sure, the “throwback-1980’s-Stranger-Things-pseudo-Spielbergian” vibe helped propel the first chapter of the Stephen King adaptation to $700 million worldwide, making It the most successful horror film of all time. But it’s primarily the indelible, twisted image of Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise the Clown that drew in the crowds. Sadly,

It’s unfortunate that It, Chapter Two is less about re-defining and re-establishing the Losers' friendship and more about…

The second half of Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 novel packs in the jump-scares, but it doesn’t live up to the 2017 movie that it follows. James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, and James Ransone star as the adult versions of a group of kids fighting an evil shape-changing clown played by Bill Skarsgard.

'It Chapter Two' cannot live up to its predecessor, try as it might to deliver over-the-top scares.

The kids of the original hit Stephen King adaptation are all grown up but having to deal with evil Pennywise again in more mature 'It: Chapter Two.'