It’s been 36 years since Beetlejuice was released to the world and became a part of several generations’ childhoods. Now, the powers that be have decided to dig up the corpse of this iconic movie creep to continue the story of Lydia Deetz.
A family tragedy brings the three generations of the family together back to Winter River and specifically back to the ghost house they still own. Lydia (Winona Ryder) has gained some fame for her paranormal gifts, yet this drives a wedge between she and her daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Delia is now a famous artist and deals with tragedy in her own aloof, spacey way.
Meanwhile, Beetlejuice, who has been pining for Lydia for 36 years has to deal with a very tumultuous past relationship that could mean the end for him.
The plot sounds simple enough, right? It’s almost as if the movie stayed in the lane of dealing with death, while restoring familial bonds would be enough.
But that’s not all…
Add a new fiancé, teenage romance, selling real estate, an afterlife black widow, a phony afterlife police procedural, and wandering deceased parents into the mix and you’ve got a movie more bloated than Beetlejuice’s netherworld neighbors.
It feels that the writers were worried about filling the feature length time and front-loaded the story with plots and characters that go nowhere, but somehow stayed in the final cut.
With all of this excess, some performances manage to stand out. First off, Michael Keaton is entirely welcome as Beetlejuice once again. He doesn’t get much of a chance to shine until halfway through the movie, but his natural grimy energy steals every scene he’s in. Also, Catherine O’Hara plays Delia as somehow more cartoony than before, but she brings in quite a few laughs. Jenna Ortega, who was seemingly created in Tim Burton’s nightmare lab, does a good job as the prickly teen who would find she has so much in common with her mom if they just communicated.
The elements that made the first movie great are all here. The score still rips, the important characters have the spotlight, there’s one-liners, and even a musical number. Yet, all of it has been sifted through losing all of the quirk and creativity. Everything about the look of the movie feels sterile, so they try and trick the audience with more plot and cartoonish villains with shabby motives.
Once the movie decides what it wants to be halfway through, it takes off and delivers the fun vibes you’d expect. There are a few twists that feel necessary for the story, while the netherworld gets a little more time to shine, giving Beetlejuice the chance to cause necessary chaos. Also, all credit to the practical effects and sets. This movie utilizes stop-motion animation, puppetry, and spectacular makeup. In that way, it brought me right back to the eerie wonder I felt when watching Beetlejuice as a kid.
Is Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a bad movie? No. But it’s also not a very good movie. It won’t ruin the first one, but it will also be lost to memory with little possibility for rewatches. This sequel is too crammed with plots and characters you’ll forget about as soon as they leave the screen. That’s an issue because it removes all moments of genuine emotion that the main story beat could have had. It will make for an average movie spooky movie night and will leave everyone saying, “Yeah, that was fine.” C-
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