Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Review

Beetlejuice joins the likes of Blade Runner, Ghostbusters, and Top Gun as an ‘80s property to earn a legacy sequel and acted as Tim Burton’s return to filmmaking after a five-year break.

Since her encounter with Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) as a teenager, Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) has become a ghost whisperer and TV personality. Lydia’s a widower, her daughter, Astrid (Jenny Ortega) ignores her, and she has been seeing Betelgeuse, leading to Lydia having panic attacks. The Deetz family is forced to return to Winter River after the untimely passing of Lydia’s father.

In the Neitherworld, Betelgeuse continues to run his Bioexorcism business and obsesses over Lydia. He is warned by the Neitherworld police that a dismembered woman called Delores (Monica Bellucci) has reassembled herself and wants revenge against the demon.

Legacy sequels have to walk a tightrope. They need to be respectful to the original and avoid being seen as nostalgia bait or a cynical cash grab. Some legacy sequels were genuinely great like Blade Runner 2049 and Top Gun: Maverick (a film that I thought was better than the original), to downgrades in the form of The Railway Children Return, and The Matrix Resurrections actively insulted fans of the original film. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was one of the better legacy sequels but it was not without its issues.

It was great that the sequel brought back Burton and most of the major cast members from the original film. It was reported that Burton nearly retired after Dumbo but Beetlejuice Beetlejuice brought back some of his mojo. Burton was back in familiar territory. It felt more like his early work since it was macabre and mostly used practical effects. Burton had developed a reputation for becoming a parody of himself since many of his films in the 2000s and 2010s were overly quirky films that recycled the same cast members, mainly Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a great amount of fun, especially whenever the title character was on screen, showing the crazy, bureaucratic world of the afterlife. Keaton steps back into his role with ease and the heavy makeup and costume hid the aging process. There was a wicked, dark sense of humour throughout the film considering the large amount of death and Betelgeuse’s powers. It was funny to see how all the residents of Neitherworld had reminders of how they died. Delores stabling herself whilst The Bee Gee’s “Tragedy” played in the background was a delight. A lot of the action in The Neitherworld did feel like a live-action cartoon and a scene where some creatures from The Neitherworld cause mayhem in a small American town felt like the ‘80s classic Gremlins.

The film skirted around the Jeffrey Jones situation and the filmmakers were able to turn it into a running gag. Even when Beetlejuice Beetlejuice did a callback to the original film, like the use of “Day-O” did have spin to it. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice didn’t fall into the trap of other legacy sequels where they felt the need to reference previous films so they could provide fan service.

It’s great to see Winona Ryder back in a lead role and playing Lydia Deetz was her breakout role. In Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Lydia was suffering from PTSD and was dependent on prescription pills, she’s certainly not the girl who sang “Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)” after getting an A on a maths test. She still had her gothic sense of style in her early 50s. Ryder paired well with Ortega as her onscreen daughter. Ortega is one of the best actors of her generation and she acted as Burton’s new muse since they worked together on Netflix’s Wednesday. Lydia was trying to protect her daughter, but Astrid pushed her away, like Lydia did with her parents. Whilst Lydia was a goth who was interested in the supernatural, Astrid was a rational sceptic and political activist.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice had a scattershot screenplay and this was where the film was at its weakest. It felt the filmmakers wanted to use all the different ideas that were pitched over that were created over the years. The film had multiple storylines such as Lydia’s trauma and Beetlejuice’s mental staking, the troubled relationship between mother and daughter, Astrid befriending a boy, Delores’ quest for vengeance against her ex-husband, and the police trying to stop the serial killer in the world of the dead. These subplots ended up making Beetlejuice Beetlejuice an unfocused film with plotlines disappearing for long periods. Delores was the worst causality of this since it was easy to forget that she was meant to be the main villain. The multiple storylines and the exploration of a parent-child relationship made Beetlejuice Beetlejuice like another legacy sequel of a comedy, Bill & Ted Face the Music.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a fun return to the world of one of Burton’s early films. It matched the sense of humour and visuals of the original film which fans of Beetlejuice would want.